


Splash

by prussianniebs



Category: Red vs. Blue
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-14
Updated: 2017-05-22
Packaged: 2018-05-26 15:26:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 36,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6245134
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prussianniebs/pseuds/prussianniebs
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The merman AU that nobody asked for</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. First Contact

**Author's Note:**

> Welp, looks like I'm going through with this....be warned though- there WILL be long ass times between chapters cause it takes me forever to write. Also a lot of the characters and pairings will appear later but not in this chapter

“Goddamnit, for the last time NO, Tucker!” Grif was, fruitlessly, attempting to stave off the aqua-tailed merman’s pleas to accompany him to the surface, despite how much he wanted to.

“Do you have _any_ idea what Tex will do us if she catches us skipping _again_?! My balls can only handle so much busting before they fucking fall off. I like them where they are thank you very much, let’s just wait ‘til night like we’re allowed to,” Tucker rolled his eyes as Grif finished.

“Yeah, but the chicks look so much better in the sun, they cover up at night dude!” Tucker made a motion over his chest to emphasize his point, “Besides, I know you want to stare at that freckled new guy in the daylight.”

‘Right, like he’d stay out in the sun for too long, with pale-ass skin like that,’ the orange-tailed Hawaiian thought to himself. Tucker was right though, ever since being nearly blinded by the guy’s white skin when he boarded off of the plane a few months prior, only to realize it was actually the glare off of his metal arm, Grif was mesmerized with the bespectacled man. Grif wanted nothing more than to float around the surface, soak in the sun, and watch the newcomer, and that was saying something for a guy who complained about the effort it took to think up an excuse to not do something for Church.

“Okay, but that doesn’t mean I’m willing to get my ass beat when we could just wait for tomorrow,” It was Grif’s turn to roll his eyes as his melodramatic friend who began to sputter at this.

“But everyone will be there tomorrow! It’ll be so crowded and the humans will think we’re tourists, it’s not like before this island was a tourist town! We’re mythical now, in case you forgot! ‘Stay hidden, use the fog’ it _fucking_ sucks,” Tucker complained.

They had heard stories from the older mers about when they could openly surface and dry up on land and walk among the native humans whenever they wanted. But then they became ‘civilized’ and the humans quickly forgot the merpeople in favor of more pressing issues, despite the help the mers would happily give. Now those stories of mermaids and mermen became just that, stories and myths and lore passed down through the years, easily explained by weather patterns and hallucinations from berries on the island.

Tucker grinned and wiggled his eyebrows, “Besides, dude, Tex and Church are, in a, uh, _private meeting_ for the day, so our meetings are cancelled and we are all free to do what we want. Church said it was something about being stressed about tomorrow and needing to take a day off.” Grif began to smirk as well, just imagining all the teasing he’ll get to do,

“And we’re the only ones who know about this?”

“Unless you count Caboose and Carolina. But Carolina mentioned seeing York and Caboose, well…” Tucker trailed off, not meeting Grif’s eyes. Grif’s mind was screaming warnings and he narrowed his eyes and suspiciously asked,

“What? What about Caboose? Don’t tell me-”

Tucker threw up his hands and exclaimed, “I couldn’t do anything about it, and he was actually the one who thought of it! He wanted to visit a dog on the land!” Grif groaned, this meant babysitting the-, wait, what did Tucker just say?

“Tucker,” Grif started, “When you say ‘on land,’ you mean swimming up to shore and seeing the fucking dog from the water, right?” The darker skinned merman began fiddling with his dreads before looking up at Grif nervously,

“No man, I mean we’re going to find a nice abandoned beach to dry off on and on two legs, escort Caboose to this dog and make sure he doesn’t get in any trouble.” And after seeing the look on Grif’s face Tucker quickly continued,

“It’s only for a few hours and we’ll get to actually talk to people without the others watching us or guarding us or holding us back!” After about a minute of contemplation that felt like hours to Tucker, Grif sighed and agreed.

“Great! Now come on, Caboose is probably done stealing the human clothes from storage, we’re losing light here.” Tucker began swimming toward the edge of the underwater canyon their village was situated in, dragging a complaining Grif behind him. There they found an overly excited man-child holding two pairs of shorts and a woman’s bathing suit.

“Hello guys! I am glad you could make it to this secret meeting!” Tucker groaned while Grif stared open mouthed at the outfits in the blue-tailed man’s hands, both exclaiming “Holy Shit,” in completely different tones. Grif began laughing hysterically and swiped the larger pair of shorts from Caboose while Tucker instead berated him,

“Caboose! What the fuck?! I told you to get three guy’s shorts!” The reply was quick,

“I know, but um, someone knocked over a few shelves when I, er he tried to pick up a sand dollar that was actually some gum so I had to hurry so I wouldn’t have to play hide and seek again.” Tucker sighed,

“Goddamnit, Caboose. Whatever, let’s just go. You wanted to see that stupid dog, right?” “Yes! Freckles will be very happy to see me!” Tucker grumbled insults under his breath but grabbed the bikini and began swimming toward the shore. Grif, wiped imaginary tears from his eyes and grabbed Caboose’s shoulder, still giggling a bit,

“I’m sure he will be, buddy. Come on.”

            If anyone had been paying especially close attention to the ocean, like someone who had come to the island specifically to study the people there and the surrounding environment and culture, they’d have noticed the three strange fin-looking things that had briefly slapped over the surface of the water only to disappear quickly near a closed off section of the beach that made up the edge of the west side of the island. But after a blink and staring at the ocean and no sign of what he had just seen, Richard Simmons decided it had been a trick of the gleaming reflecting sun off of the water and he went back to studying the tropical fish in the harbor.

            “Fuck, guys, you don’t think anyone saw us, right?! Caboose, I told you the empty beach was further north! We shouldn’t surface ‘til we see the sand bar,” Tucker began freaking out.

“Calm down, dude, no one saw us. We were up there for like half a second, it’s been a year since we dried off last time, besides we’re headed the right way now,” Grif assured his friend, glancing back where they had just gone above the water only to realize they were way too close to a public beach. Truthfully, he wasn’t so sure no one has seen them, he had the weird feeling of being watched as they swam under, the feeling quickly dissipated but it left the Hawaiian uneasy.

            “Gruff is right! We have nothing to worry about, we’re going to be on land soon. And we will make new friends and I will introduce you guys to Freckles! And he will protect us!” Caboose tried to reassure his aqua friend. Ignoring the blatant mispronunciation of his name, Grif uneasily agreed, he wasn’t too excited to meet the dog, if his last encounter with an animal on land had anything to go off of. Tucker only calmed down once they were close enough to the shore to see that no one was in the water so it was safe to surface and they saw that they were in the right place this time.

            There was a hesitation among all three of them before, with the largest (Caboose) in the lead, they wriggled themselves onto the shore, the dry sand feeling strange against their torsos and their tails. Tucker was the first to express his distaste,

“Ugh, gross man!! I forgot how weird sand was on the land.” He tried wiping it off only to attract more,

“Hey Caboose-” He started, looking over just in time to see the bigger man lick some sand off of his hands and make a face,

“Sandwiches do not taste as good as Church said they would.”

            “Caboose, hate to break it to ya but that’s not a sandwich,” Grif said as he wobbly stood up on his newly transformed legs.

“But Church-”

“Church lied to you…or you completely misunderstood what he said…I don’t actually know which is more likely knowing you,” Tucker stated as he was helped up by Grif who had quickly adjusted to the land and pulled on the stripped orange and red shorts.

            With a final ‘bleh’ and ‘ptooey,’ Caboose finished purging the sand from his mouth while pulling up his own deep blue diamond patterned shorts and turned to Grif and Tucker. The shortest of the three was still naked and staring at the teal-ish mint colored bikini in his hands. He turned to Grif and held up the top half,

“I think this was meant for Carolina.” He let the top half go, flinging it back into the water and pulling on the bottom half,

“I hope she didn’t have her heart set on wearing it,” Grif grimaced as he watched the swimwear float away.

“I’m sure York will be more torn up about not seeing her in it, or maybe he will be disappointed about not being able to get her out of it, bow chicka bow wow,” Tucker paused and looked down at himself,

“Great, now I’m that dude wearing the speedo, it’s gonna be near impossible to pick up chicks!” He turned to Grif,

“We are stopping and grabbing me some shorts as fast as we can.”

“What? Are we going to rob a guy? Cause I’m totally on board with that. Actually can we steal some liquor before we leave too? Human alcohol is so much better than the shit we got down below,” Grif started nodding enthusiastically, ready to get his on-land adventure going. Caboose butt in as the trio started heading toward civilization,

“I want to also meet Rob.” Tucker chuckled and clasp Caboose on the back,

“Okay man, but we gotta be quiet about it if we want to go see Freckles.”

            For a guy who was quick to want to steal a pair of shorts from an innocent retailer, Tucker didn’t appear to be that ashamed of what he was wearing. He was still ‘wassup, girl’-ing every woman that passed them as they trudged through the beach. Until, of course, Grif shoved the overly zealous self-proclaimed ‘player’ into an umbrella. Luckily, after excusing the speedo as a dare after losing his real trunks to the ocean, the poor family laying under it felt so bad for Tucker they gave him five bucks to buy a new, appropriate, and non-child- traumatizing pair. At this point, Grif was sorely disappointed in the lack of robbing that was going on and swore the first chance he got he was going to steal something, besides that family’s kid’s childhood… and Tucker’s dignity despite how amazing it was.

            After getting scoffs, strange looks, laughs, and even a few winks from both sexes, the three boringly and legally bought Tucker some crazy bright and amazingly cheap aqua swim trunks from a tourist store.

            “I’m telling you, that cashier guy was totally checking out my ass,” Tucker bragged a safe distance away from the store before continuing after a scoff from Grif who replied, “The only thing that guy was ‘checking out’ was your lost pride.” Grif turned,

“So which way to the dog, Caboose?” Grif hadn’t always been the best when it came to directions, but he was pretty sure staring at the sun then licking your finger and sticking it in the air was not the proper way to find a place you have visited from the water multiple times.  But hey, Caboose could have crazy knowledge of tracking or something for all he knew. Weirder things have happened, they were merpeople after all.

            His thoughts were interrupted by Tucker’s call for Caboose to wait up as he began jogging away without warning, they could only begrudgingly follow so not to lose the big man-baby-fish. About ten minutes of running to catch up later found Grif bent over and huffing out gasps and complaints in the middle of the road that outlined the island.

            “Wait….huuuuh, guys! Huuuuuuuuh, fucking, ghuhh, holy shit,” he gasped. Maybe those extra helpings of shrimp weren’t such a good idea. Oh who was he kidding, of course they were a good idea. He smiled at the memory of Tex and Church’s engagement party a few weeks prior, ‘What I’d give for a piece of cake right now,’ he thought. But the happiness was fleeting, as he narrowly avoided a cyclist that swerved and crashed into a nearby tree. When Grif went to check on the guy he was greeted with a barrage of insults.

            “You stupid fuck, why the hell were you just standing in the middle of the fucking road, huh?! One of us could have been seriously injured! One of us could have _died_!”

            Immediately on the defensive Grif replied, “Well I’m _sorry_ that the _hundreds of feet of road_ wasn’t enough for you to see me in time! What were _you_ so distracted by to not see me?!” And with the distance closed between them and the sun shaded by the tree they were now under, Grif could get a good luck at his apparent ‘almost killer or victim’ and he found a blushing face of freckles and patch of red hair and green eyes covered by thin glasses. To say the least, the Hawaiian was struck speechless, this was not how he expected to meet his metal-armed mystery man who, he now noticed, was holding his flesh arm with his robotic one.

            “I-I, I was looking at the view if you _must_ know. I was looking for something,” came the red head’s response.

            “Yeah, and what’s that?” Grif huffed out harshly.

            “I’m a student here, dumbass,” he pointed to the backpack on his back, “I was looking for... wild life and crap.” But something in the guy’s voice and the way he trailed off and looked back at the water made Grif feel like there was more to it than that.

            Grif sighed and walked over to the cyborg’s bike, picking it up and rolling it over to its owner,

“I have a name, you know. And for what it’s worth, I’m sorry for making you run into this tree and almost killing us both, I couldn’t keep up with my friends and got tired. But let me walk you to wherever you’re going, I owe you that much.” The redhead raised his eyebrows as he slowly got up and started down the road.

            “Is your name fatass cause that’s what I’ll be calling you,” he said as he passed Grif and began leading toward his destination. Grif replied,

“For your information it’s Grif. And then what’s yours? Dick? Cause that’s what you are.” The bespectacled man blushed,

“Simmons. Call me Simmons.”

            “Okay, _Simmons_ , if you’re a student what are you observing? Plant life? Ocean life? Seaweed? Fish? This island is like a hidden treasure to find organisms. Wait, you aren’t killing animals around here, are you? That would be messed up, man,” Simmons looked offended and defended himself.

            “No, dumbass!! I’m a scientist! We wouldn’t mess with nature like that. Observations only, even if we did I would quit before I ever hurt anything,” Their bickering continued on like this for a few more minutes until they reached the end of the road and Simmons suddenly turned and began down a corner, on a dirt trail in between two houses, only stopping when he realized Grif was no longer panting behind him.

            “Hey, you’re not having a heart attack back there, are ya? Come on! The house I’m staying at is this way,” he waved his arm in a ‘come on’ motion and continued down the path, a muttering Grif following close behind.

            “Well I’m _sorry_ I didn’t expect you to live in some sketchy back house.”

            “Oh shut up, it’s not like it’s in the middle of the woods, we’re right on the water! Its crazy beautiful! Sarge has been a generous host, even if he is a little crazy,” Simmons stopped, whispering the last part causing Grif to snort.

            “What, are you afraid your _gracious_ host will hear you and kick you out?”

            “No! Well, a little. He’s honestly a pretty good guy I just don’t want him to think I don’t respect him. Plus… well let’s just keep going,” Simmons blushed and continued forward, somewhat cautiously, but motioning for Grif to go ahead of him. The trees cleared and the road widened, they were much closer than Grif had thought. But before he could get a good look, the distant sound of a dog barking began to get closer and closer at an alarming rate. He looked behind himself to ask Simmons about it, Simmons was slowly backing away from Grif. When he turned back around, a giant golden retriever was bounding straight towards him, ears flopping, and no signs of stopping anytime soon. That was, until it barreled right into Grif, who thankfully shoved the bicycle out of the way in time so there were no gears stuck in uncomfortable places.

            “OOOF!!!” The slobbering creature tackled the bigger man with the force of a semi-truck and effectively trapping his prey so he had no other choice but to endure the bout of kisses.

            “What is this?! Argh! Get it off!!” Grif tried prying his attacker off of him without really harming it, until he heard laughter in between slobbers. He saw Simmons sauntering over, somewhat crouched over and wiping his eyes from laughing.

            “ _This_ is payback for earlier,” Simmons whistled and the terrible fuzzy thing attacking Grif got off of him and trotted over to the red head who dug into his pocket and fed the dog a tiny fish.

            “You had that in your pocket this whole time? That’s disgusting, no wonder you smell bad,” Grif began, getting back to his feet and sniffing the air.

            “Whatever, idiot. You must have eaten like, _pounds_ of fish and still smell like it for Freckles to come sprinting to you like that,” he snorted, petting the dog before his eyes trailed behind to the house behind Grif who’s own eyesight trailed after Simmons’ to the three men walking over to the pair. Simmons took hold of the dog’s collar and began walking towards the group.

            “I didn’t know you were expecting company, sir. Did we interrupt?” The men were close enough that the Hawaiian could get his first glimpse of this ‘Sarge’ fellow.

            “Of course not, Private! Just a surprise visit from a long distance friend and admirer,” the man with a buzz cut gestured to the two in swimsuits and t shirts approaching behind him.

“Admirer, sir?” “Well, nor for me, for Freckles here,” the stranger dressed in royal blue ran right up to Simmons and ducked immediately down to grab Freckles from him and began playing with him further in the yard.

            “Tucker? Caboose? This is the Freckles you were talking about?” Grif recognized his two companions after wiping the slobber off of his face.

            “You know these guys?” Simmons questioned, beginning to feel out of the loop.

            “Know us? We’re practically family!” The third man wearing aqua shorts and a (new) matching t-shirt finally spoke up, strutting beside Sarge over to the newly arrived pair.

            “Yeah, an asshole family that doesn’t wait for me when I’m dying of an asthma attack running after you!”

            “Oh, I’m sorry! I didn’t know you had asthma as well as clogged arteries! I think you might have been dying from a heart attack, fatty!” Tucker jived at the larger man.

            “Ha! As if you’ve ever run a day in your life,” Simmons poked the man in orange before going to pick up his discarded bicycle. Grif defended himself, “I exercise!!!”

            “Oh, yeah and what do you do? Because I’m pretty sure that the walk from the couch to the fridge doesn’t count,” Simmons began walking his bike toward the house. The rest of the group, sans Caboose and his new playmate, turned along with Simmons to walk down the dirt driveway towards the side of the house that faced the water.

            Grif turned to look at Tucker, “I do a lot of swimming, and so what if a few sweet cakes are added here and there in the equation?” At this the bespectacled student scoffed and turned to look at the subject of his ridicule and was surprised to not meet his eyes but see him and the ‘Tucker’ man exchange a glance. His surprise was cut short by a sudden outburst from his caretaker as they approached the back porch,

            “Now would ya look at that craftsmanship! There isn’t a single goddamn flaw in that deck! Not a single one!” In unison, everyone turned to look at what the older man was boasting about. What they saw was anything but perfect. Reflecting the afternoon sun was a shoddy old deck with multiple holes and looked to be sinking into the 20 yards of sea it stretched out into. Grif was the one to speak up,

            “Uh, Sarge, I hate to break it to you but that’s a piece of shit.”

            Sarge looked back and forth between the dark man and his ‘deck’ before replying, “Well, it would be perfect if Simmons here would work on it with Lopez!”

            “I keep telling you sir! I have research to do! I can’t hang around all day to work on side projects with your groundskeeper! Get Donut to do it if you need it fixed up so bad.”

            “I would but I don’t think I want to give Donut the chance to talk about handling large tools…or working on wood.” Simmons gave a sound of understanding while the other two presented confused looks to which the only explanation the redhead provided was that “he’s a little….” Before the others could inquire more, Freckles barreled straight through Grif, effectively taking him down once again before heading for the water. But the fun wasn’t over as Caboose was close behind to knock Simmons down and hurdle over Grif following the dog.

            “Caboose wait!” Tucker sprinted after Caboose, stopping him before he touched the water, leaving a groaning Grif and Simmons on the ground after having hit their heads against one another and Sarge continued after Tucker, calling for Freckles and laughing at the two groaning behind him.

            “Ohohooo, why?” Grif was cradling his head in his hands, “I swear to God you trained it to do this!” He rolled over and landed spread eagle on his back, deciding against getting up in favor of the soft grass and sand beneath him. When the light stopped hitting him he opened his eyes and saw the silhouette of a lanky tall man,

            “And where are you going?”

            “To grab an ice pack, I think you gave me a concussion, asshole,” Simmons walked toward the house, leaving the orange merman lying comfortably in the sun, though with a pounding head. Slowly the pounding grew fainter and Grif began to nod off. This day certainly hadn’t gone at all the way he imagined. Grif had imagined that they would find the dog, get yelled at by its master then spend a few hours at a bar with some stolen money while Tucker tried to pick up chicks, consoling Caboose about the dog, and Grif silently praying for every man to be his shy redhead. Only for them to all be disappointed and sneak back home before anyone noticed and return on land the next day with everyone else.

            Instead here he was, at the house of his freckled pale crush, Caboose was having a great time with Freckles whose master appeared to know a bit more than Grif imagined (he would have to ask about that later) and Tucker…well they couldn’t all be winners. The best part was that the day was only half over, they still had plenty of time before they would have to rush off before Church, or worse _Carolina_ , noticed the lack of destruction from the three.

            “Ahh!!” Grif shot up from his horizontal position when something cold landed on his stomach. Snatching it up, he looked around and caught a glimpse of a metal arm strolling towards the others. Grunting, Grif stood up and followed over to the rest of his gang sitting under a gazebo, Caboose was sitting with the dog on a swing and the other three were situated comfortably around a table. Grif pulled up a chair of his own and held the ice pack up to his head, nodding in thanks toward the man across from him holding his own ice pack up.

            Interrupting Tucker attempting to get the dog to come to him, Simmons turned to Sarge, “So how do you know these people, Sir? And why didn’t you tell me they were visiting? I would have been home sooner and put out some food or something,” he turned to the guests, “Will you guys be staying with us? Come to think of it, where are you staying?” he finished, flustered and moving his hands while speaking.

            “Calm down, private. As far as I know these guys will only be here about a day,” he turned toward his guests, “You’re only allowed a day still, right boys?” The blue-clad boys glanced at each other. It was at this that Grif stiffened, did this Sarge guy know about them? He had heard about humans that knew but had always kept his distance when they came ashore especially after hearing stories of untrustworthy humans. He had left the human dealing with for Carolina and Church.

            “Actually Sarge, if you could not bring this up _tomorrow_ when the others come, that would be super awesome,” Tucker said slightly nervously, eyes shifting between Grif who was staring him down and Simmons who was looking questioningly at all of them. When Sarge nodded and began ranting again about how Simmons needed to fix up more of his house Tucker turned to Grif and whispered,

            “I’ll explain when we get out of here,” Grif nodded and turned toward the setting sun over the horizon behind Sarge’s yard. His attention was grabbed by the unmistakable glint of a metallic arm and a soft sigh to his right. He looked over to see Sarge, Caboose, and Simmons bathed in a soft pink light and when he glanced down he saw that he too was shining from the strange sunlight. He looked back over to Simmons and saw that he was slightly frowning and covering his eyes and cursing under his breath about the brightness. Grif couldn’t help but turn away and chuckle at the stupid cyborg. Grif turned back to the cursing man only to see his expression completely change, staring intently into the sunset and whisper,

 “Is that…” But before Grif could ask what Simmons was looking at, the teal-clad mother fucker stood up in a hurry and screamed, “Fuck! We are SO screwed!” He grabbed Grif by the arm and tugged Caboose up and away from the dog.

“Freckles!! No!! I’ll always remember you! Don’t forget about me!”

“Caboose, sush!!” Tucker scolded then turned to a confused Sarge and Simmons, “I’m really sorry and I promise we’ll stop by tomorrow if we aren’t murdered! Thanks for everything!”

Sarge and Simmons both stood up and Sarge yelled, “I expect to see you boys here at Oh-Nine-hundred on the dot tomorrow morning! Freckles and I will be waiting!” Then Grif saw his silhouette direct Simmons’ into the house and a whistle indicated he’d called for Freckles.

Tucker finally let go of his two companions and began speed walking toward the town causing Grif to job up to him angrily,

“Dude what the hell was that?!”

“You didn’t see her?”

“See who?!”

“Well if you had gotten your head out of your love-struck ass for a second, you’d have seen mother fucking Carolina pop up out there! We’re dead!” Grif winced and his hand subconsciously went to cover his balls and he groaned in thought of impending doom.

“Okay but why are we heading to town, why aren’t we heading straight for water?!”

“Dumbass, we have to find a secluded spot to head back! And the beach is through town…Plus, you know, the more time between now and crushed balls is precious time,” Grif couldn’t argue with that logic, but he was beginning to get out of breath meanwhile Tucker and Caboose were a few steps ahead of him. Once they hit town, however, they slowed down amongst the tourist crowd at night. Tucker looked around and flocked the three of them into a coffee shop open late for the tourists, it was somewhat empty but loud enough to not be overheard in. They sat down at a table and Tucker explained,

“If she already knows we’re here she’ll either come for us or wait up. Either way she definitely hasn’t told anyone yet…especially not Tex. So we can chill for a bit and,” he nodded toward Grif, “explain a few things.” A waitress came over and asked if they wanted anything Tucker was about to explain that they had no money but Caboose interrupted and asked if they had any hot chocolate and took a wad of money in a zip-lock bag from his pocket.

“Dude, where the fuck did you get that?!” Tucker pointed to the money.

“Oh Sarge told me I might need it!” Smiling and silently thanking the old coot, both Tucker and Grif ordered coffee and shivered a bit from the breeze coming from the open window. Once the waitress had left Grif turned to Tucker while Caboose began playing with a napkin,

“Dude, you have definitely got some explaining to do about Sarge and what are the odds that shiny arm’s living with him and Freckles?!” Tucker shushed him a bit and responded in a low voice,

“I don’t know about your fucking lover boy being there, that’s just weird, but Sarge is one of last humans on this island that knows about us and our day we come on land! Like, him and the mayor and a few old timing natives around here but most everyone else has either died out or stopped believing. You remember the stories Church and Flowers used to tell us about our kind coming on land and meeting with humans all the time and helping them out?”

Grif nodded, frowning, “Remember how we thought they were myths? Same thing for the humans! It happened! Long time ago, but then the tourists came and it became a tourist island!” He stopped talking and quieted down when he looked up and saw the waitress heading toward them with their drinks. The three thanked her and Caboose chugged his steaming cup of chocolate immediately and smiled to the horror of the other two who began sipping their own drinks…slowly.

“So how can we be sure we can trust him?” Grif asked.

“I’m still not sure we can but he’s been cool so far and not spilled anything but I dunno man, I feel like he’s one of us. Like he may be crazy but I think he knows something we don’t and it’s not us being able to trust him, but him sizing _us_ up…”

“You’re right about one thing at least,” Grif said getting a tilted head as reply from Tucker, “he’s definitely at least a little bat shit crazy.” This earned him a laugh.

“Did you see inside his house at all, man? Or were you too wrapped up in your summer lovin?” Grif lightly hit his darker friend, “You shut up, you’re just mad cause you haven’t gotten any in, oh that’s right… EVER!”

“No, but dude he had at least FIFTY shotguns everywhere in his house. Like everywhere. I’m pretty sure some of his stuff wasn’t actually usable and was just disguised shotguns!! There’s nothing to hunt around here! Why so many shotguns?!” Grif burst out laughing and looked at his coffee.

“You know, I think we went into the wrong place. We should’ve gone into a bar! I’m gonna need to be good and drunk before we head back and while we’re at it I could use a smoke. Hey Caboose, how much cash we got here?” Grif reached for the bag of cash but Caboose was too quick and snatched it up before Grif could.

“Sergeant said to only use it for emergencies,” Grif looked at Caboose exasperatedly.

“And a coffee shop counts as an emergency?!”

“No, but hot chocolate does!” Caboose stood up and walked toward the counter to find their waitress, probably to get more drink to scald his throat with.

Tucker sighed and shook his head, “Grif you gotta promise me you won’t get drunk the minute we come back here tomorrow like every year. You end up being a little fun and we just get kicked out and I have to take care of your fat ass all day. Partying with you is fun, especially when we only get human alcohol once but shit, WAIT til at least after 12 to get completely drunk!”

“It’s not _my_ fault the people here don’t know how to party!” There was a crash from over by Caboose and everyone (all 4 people in the shop by now) looked over to Caboose alone at the counter before going back to their business.

“I’ll party with your sister,” Tucker muttered under his breath. Grif‘s head turned so fast to look at Tucker he heard a crack,

“The _fuck_ you say about my sister? I swear to God, if I hear you even touched her! Dude she’s had enough abortions as it is! I don’t want her to end up like what’s its name, Crunchbite or whatever,” Tucker glared,

“That was a one-time deal and you know it. Besides, I wouldn’t have Junior it if wasn’t for all of that!” Grif scoffed and smirked,

“Yeah and you’d also be a virgin if it wasn’t for that.” But before Tucker could throttle Grif while he chuckled to himself a voice caught their attention and Tucker froze.

“Does this belong to you two?” Caboose strolled over to the pair accompanied by, when Grif looked up from the other and around the room, the only other person in the café with them. He glanced back to Tucker across from him who was staring wide-eyed at the newcomer.

“Yeah, he’s with us, why?”

“I’m gonna have to ask you two to keep a better watch on him, he just broke some of our displays which by the way, I’ll also be needing some payment for,” he motioned behind him with a wave of his hand toward the counter where a few signs and some shattered glass were littered on the floor. He turned back to the three and noticed Tucker,

“What? What’s your problem?” Grif chimed in too in a lower tone,

“Yeah man, what’s up?” Tucker looked like he was seeing a ghost with a mixture of fear and excitement and disbelief in his face.

“…..Wash? Is that you?” By now Caboose had wandered outside with the to-go cup of coffee he had bought and the man that had brought him over gave Tucker a questioning look.

“Do we know each other? I’m sorry, I have a, um _memory_ problem,” the blonde-tipped brunette man replied, “I don’t think I’ve seen you before on the island, are you new?”

“No, no I’m not new. Me and my, uh, family visit every year with this, uh tour thing,” Tucker’s voice came out airy, almost dreamy-like, almost as if he couldn’t believe his own voice. “What, why haven’t I seen _you_? This is a small island…” he trailed off, shaking his head.

“I was actually stuck in a hospital bed in what most would call a coma for a while, or at least that’s what they tell me. I woke up a few months ago and thought I’d met everyone around but I guess that was just locals,” he replied, looking down and picking up their empty cups. “But hey, if we knew each other maybe you could fill me in on a few things!”

The freckled waiter smiled at Tucker, waiting for an answer. Unfortunately, the darker man was stunned after hearing this explanation and this ‘Wash’s’ smile slowly faded,

“Unless, I’m not the guy you’re looking for. I haven’t heard of many guys named Wash but I remember that that was,” he stopped and furrowed his eyebrows and shaking his head looking slightly annoyed at himself, “ _is_ my name, or at least what people called me before. I mean if I did something to offend you before I get it too! But I’m also not looking for trouble,”

At this, Tucker stood up and put his hand on the slightly flustered blonde’s shoulders and motioned for Grif to stand as well, “Hey! Hey! It’s okay, man, look, I’ll be back tomorrow, and you aren’t working?” He shook his head and Tucker continued, “Is there a kind of secluded place we can talk? A place we can be alone and won’t be seen or interrupted?” The other man nodded slowly and Tucker turned to Grif and told him to wait outside. Grumbling, the tan man complied and Tucker called out “I’ll be right out, promise!”

Grif glanced around the nearly empty street and huffed. Caboose was sitting on a railing and swinging his feet back and forth, Grif made his way over and as he approached he noticed Caboose was quietly humming and swinging his feet back and forth. Grif hopped on the railing next to him, successfully wobbling the entire railing for a minute but when he looked over, Caboose didn’t seem to mind. Caboose just continued to swing his feet back and forth with the wobbling and keep the cup of hot chocolate steady.

Grif smiled, that was one of the reasons he really liked Caboose. He may be a pain in the ass to deal with sometimes, but he always had the best intentions and he really didn’t get annoyed by other people or by the littlest things that frustrate other people.

“Hey bud,” Grif started, speaking up in the silence of the night, “your drink’s getting cold.”

“Oh this?” Caboose lifted the cup into the air a little, spilling a few drops out of the sippy hole thing, “Yeah it’s not for me.”

They both heard a tinkle of the bell slice the night air behind them and the departing words of Tucker and Wash were mumbled along with promises of meeting the next day. The bell along with a small click were heard as the door closed and the blonde locked the shop from the inside.

“Have a nice chat with the random stranger?” Surprisingly, Caboose was the one to answer Grif’s jibe.

            “Washingtub isn’t a stranger! That is why I said hello to him. He’s the replacement Church! Or he was until we got Church back,” the giant man-child trailed off, obviously having gotten distracted by another thought.

            “You blues are fucking weird, how come I never heard of this guy? Huh?”

            “We got into a little accident during a mission after an argument. And you met him, stupid! You must have been day dreaming about food too much to really pay attention, fatty. I never brought him up cause… I thought he was dead.” Tucker looked back toward the shop, through the window at the apron wearing blond.

            “Duuuude,” Grif started snapping his fingers in front of Tucker’s face. “And you call _me_ whipped.” But the insult was half-hearted, Grif did remember the guy. And he remembered how bad Tucker took his death. Grif glanced at Caboose, wondering why the hell _he_ didn’t remember the waiter, or at least question his sudden appearance _as_ their waiter.

            Tucker pushed Grif off of the railing and exclaimed, “Lay off!” at the same time as Caboose pointed toward the road and said “Finally! You’re here!”

            A dark figure strolled up to the trio, Grif and Tucker sucked in a breath. That red hair was unmistakable.

“We are sooooooo screwed.”


	2. Arrival

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They return and we learn a little more about Tucker

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, here's a birthday present from me  
> Tucker's POV btw

Overall, the day had been strangely an over-exceptionally good one. The guy Caboose’s dog best friend belonged to happened to be Grif’s nerdy crush’s host home. Caboose was happy, Grif was happy, and Tucker got a nice day on the land to check out hot babes. Okay he didn’t really get to see many chicks, but a leg day without the crazy supervision of everyone else was a treat.

            Everything had been going so well and smooth and it looked like they were going to be able to sneak back undetected. But then they had to wait around to let Carolina cool down and…and then…Caboose found Wash.

            Wash who looked like he had finally had more than two hours of sleep. Wash whose smile when he was meeting customers made his eyes crinkle in a way that didn’t remind Tucker of someone with a stomach ache. Wash who couldn’t remember Tucker at all. Or Junior. Or the laughs they shared. Wash who couldn’t remember the argument that nearly cost him his life. Tucker didn’t know whether to hug Wash or make up a fake backstory for him to give him some closure.

            Well, none of that would matter if Carolina saw Wash before Tucker could remind him of everything. Luckily, Carolina wasn’t too keen on visiting any of the local shops, especially in favor of picking Tucker up by the scruff of his t-shirt and dragging him towards the beach, the other two straggling behind.

            “What the _hell_ were you idiots thinking?! No, I don’t even care, let’s just get back as soon as possible before Tex notices, she’s probably not far behind me,” Carolina let go of Tucker as they reached the beach. She huffed and crossed her arms as she spun around to face the trio.

            “Lina, we just wanted a day to ourselves. Nothing happened! We’re fine and nobody suspects a thing,” Grif spoke up, trying to defend themselves.

            “That’s doesn’t- Look, there’s a system in place for a reason, and…Caboose what do you want?” Carolina looked over to Caboose who had had his arm stretched out, offering the cup in the red-head’s direction.

            “This is for you! The best hot chocolate in the world, er I guess now it would be warm chocolate.” Caboose beamed at the taken aback look on the mermaid’s face as she reached out and took the drink. She smiled softly and took a sip,

            “Thanks Caboose, made just the way I like it!” Her smile widened with Caboose’s. She took another couple of sips and released the tension in her shoulders. Smiling, Grif and Tucker glanced at each other and both pat Caboose on the back.

            “Guys, you have to understand that if we allowed land walking all the time there would be chaos and mers would eventually get reckless and just, if we got discovered there would be absolutely no peace.” Carolina finished the last of her coffee and threw the cup in a nearby trashcan.

            “I’ll let this time go, but we’ll talk more when we get back and Caboose has no more ammo to cool me off. No more legging unless you’re on a mission, I don’t want Tex to taunt me with this forever so hurry it up. Sneaky like!” They descended into the water, stripping from their clothes in the privacy of the underwater. Carolina turned to Caboose.

            “You’ve gotta tell me where the hell you got that chocolate, it was made the _exact_ way I like it. I thought I’d scouted out all the coffee shops on the island!”

            “Oh that’s because we found Wa-” Caboose was cut off by Tucker swiping his tail under Caboose’s own forming tail, effectively knocking the built man into the water.

            “Because we found a new employee at this really old looking quaint shop at the edge of town!” The smallest merman finished while diving under.

            The mermaid with the matching color tail responded with a “Hmm” before leading the other three into sneaking back home. Luckily they all lived rather close to the edge of the mer village, so they only had to sneak past one merman guard who ‘happened’ to be York. Who also only ‘happened’ to be looking off in a different direction and, Tucker noticed, definitely glanced over to get a look at Carolina’s ass as they swam away.

            “Get a good night’s sleep guys, gonna be an early day tomorrow,” she winked as she swam away.

            That night Tucker had strange dreams and woke up feeling groggy and nervous about the day. He looked into the mirror attached to his rock wall and had to rub his eyes a few times from what he saw. Wash was behind him, sprawled out in the large hammock and still snoring. Tucker shook his head, was he still dreaming? He looked again and instead of in the hammock, the blonde was hugging him from behind, his black and yellow spotted tail swishing with his own aqua one. Tucker had to wrap his own arms around himself and swish his tail a few times to make sure he wasn’t actually feeling what he saw.

He blinked a few times and soon all he saw in the mirror was himself, arms wrapped protectively around his own torso, shoulders tight, and heavy bags under his eyes. He ran his fingers through his short hair and scratched at his head as his eyes stung. He wiped at his eyes as he turned away from the mirror. He took a deep breath and made sure he looked presentable and ready for the day before grabbing something off of his side table and wrapping it around his neck. On to the day.

Because of his post as an agent, Tucker was supposed to be amongst the first to wake up and meet up with Church and Tex to get their assignments for the day. A huge crowd of all the merpeople that wished to head ashore were gathered and were being sorted into groups, a job Tucker probably would have been made to do if he hadn’t been distracted this morning and arrived on time. He tiredly smirked and silently chuckled for the poor shmuck they got to do the damned job…probably Florida, er, Flowers the poor bastard.

“And how the fuck are you, well rested? Huh?” Tucker turned, ready to face his first challenge of the day: Leonard Church, who, Tucker noticed, was holding his wrapped left hand closely to his chest. “With only Caboose and the other Freelancers around, guess who they got to organize this fuck-fest? Got one hint for ya, no one volunteered until fingers were broken.”

“Man, you wouldn’t believe the night I had last night! Lay off, please!”

“Jeez, what swam up your ass last night and died?”

“Don’t want to talk about it, let’s just get on with this trip.” Tucker began swimming toward the front of the line-groups.

“Dude, wait up!” Church flicked his tail quickly to catch up. “I won’t be able to use these fine fingers for a while! It’s a good thing they were used plenty yesterday and last night! You weren’t the only one to not get a lot of sleep, if you know what I mean.” Church clapped a cold hand on Tucker’s back.

“Wow, you just wanted to brag didn’t you? Well whoop dee doo! You got your annual once-a-year night of laid-ing with the half-shark? I suppose you earned a high five,” Tucker half-heartedly lifted his palm.

Church raised an eyebrow and glanced at the hand and smacked it down, “Man whatever kept you up last night must have really fucked you up cause the Tucker I know would be all out for me getting lucky, especially how admittedly few times it happens.”

Tucker slowed on his way towards the black and equally aqua-tailed mermaids in the lead of the crowd. He turned his head toward the cobalt and white striped mer, giving him an exasperated look, he opened his mouth to speak and his hand drifted up to the chain around his neck. This didn’t go unnoticed by Church,

“Oh shit, you’re having Wash nightmares again?” Tucker’s hand immediately shot down to his side, away from the chain and the oyster connected. “Man, you’ve got to let that _go_! It wasn’t your fault and…please don’t chain yourself to that,” this time Church grabbed Tucker’s arm and stopped them.

“Tucker, I _know_ it eats at you, and you want to just forget, but forgetting isn’t the answer, and neither is torturing yourself with the burden,” Church nodded pointedly at his companion’s neck. Tucker sucked in a breath and mentally slapped himself, he had to be sneaky dammit,

“Church, what the fuck are you on? Dude, you just got crazy sappy, did Tex finally actually make you into a bitch last night? Seriously, holy shit. It was like two years ago,”

Exactly two years, five months, 2 weeks, and 2 days, Tucker thought silently to himself, but he didn’t need Church riding his ass the entire day and finding Wash before Tucker could see him privately.

“We’re going on shore for the first time in a year, I was just feeling a little…sentimental, I guess I don’t know, and grabbed this while running late this morning. Habit, dude! So don’t worry, okay?”

Church still looked extremely cautious, so Tucker continued, “I swear to God, asshole, I’m a grown man I can handle myself… promise. You want someone to babysit, go find Caboose.”

“No, no! That’s alright! I have things I wanna do today too! Excuse me for showing a bit of concern for my friend, goddamm,” Church began rambling about douchebag friends and swam away towards what Tucker could only assume be more crippling loneliness and denial as well as his girlfriend.

Tucker rolled his eyes but his hand still trailed up to his neck, stroking the oyster back and forth along the chain absent-mindedly. The dark-skinned merman knew he would still be watched by Church who would definitely tell Tex as well. Luckily he could trust her to keep the concern on the down low. He made his way toward Caboose, who was handing out human swimming suits and clothes in zip-lock bags. Tucker rummaged through the bin, making sure to double check that he was indeed grabbing the correct pair of _men’s_ swim trunks, t-shirt, flip flops, and sunglasses.

“You going to visit Freckles again today, Caboose?” Tucker began thinking, it might be a good idea to keep Caboose nearby in case Church had any bright ideas of trailing Tucker.

“Oh yes! But I went up to meet Freckles near his beach again last night, because you know I didn’t really get to say a proper goodbye to Freckles and I decided to leave a message for Mr. Sargent to meet up in town somewhere so it would be less suspicious,” Caboose answered, back turned to the line of people in an effort of privacy. Thankfully the crowd seemed too distracted by the prospect of land and speaking to each other to eavesdrop on the two.

“Wow, Caboose that was actually a good pla-” Tucker was interrupted by Caboose continuing his story,

“But while I was leaving the message that shiny maroon guy started coming outside so I had to leave in kind of a hurry. I hope my handwriting wasn’t too bad!”

“Fuck, did he see you?!”

“I do not think so, but when I looked back to check, he was near the edge of the water looking but he didn’t have his glass eyes so I do not think he saw me so I swam back.”

Tucker made a mental note to tell Grif about his royal blue teammate’s encounter. Tucker was feeling a bit anxious to get going on to land, it was already 8:30am and the mers were still being organized. Tucker didn’t want to have to suffer the wait _and_ the boring ass explanations of what to and not to do on land an all that preemptive shit. So, having safely secured his own clothes for the day, he decided to help move the process along by aiding Caboose in handing out the plastic bags of clothes to the, thankfully, dwindling line of excited mers. Once finally done Tucker told Caboose to meet up with him on the island and he swam towards the caves where the meeting rooms for the missions were.

He still heard the beginnings of Carolina and York’s speech explaining what to expect when they, those who would be legging for the first time anyway, reach land. Tucker knew the drill, they would be arriving to land on a boat that the Project rented just for this day and they would ‘infiltrate’ land under the cover of tourists. Tucker chuckled a bit, those at the head of Project were so messed up and ingrained with the military-like regime that even a freaking vacation was disciplined.

Tucker lightly tapped the cave side as he entered with the end of his tail, a slight trick he liked to do for luck. He used to do it all the time out of habit and, well it seemed like the kind of day where old habits and little quirks came back to him. He swam to the last room and entered through the seaweed, he rummaged through a basket to grab his sword and holster. It wasn’t regulation to bring it on the once a year trip to land, but Tucker always did just in case.

The merman left the office room, attaching the holster to himself and recalling the last time he had been in the dark halls alone. He hadn’t actually been alone, instead he had thought he was alone searching for something to help Junior sleep. It had been difficult for Junior and for Tucker immediately after Junior’s birth, Tucker had barely wanted to keep his son, luckily Doc and Church and Caboose and…Wash had been there to help.

Tucker had been frantically searching for anything, food or information or fucking anything to get his newborn half selkie son to be at rest all while silently sobbing to himself. He had finally collapsed in a fit when he imagined the prospect of returning to his upset and uncomfortable and loud son whom he found he couldn’t do a single thing to help. That was where Wash had found him, alone and curled up in the fetal position on the floor of one of the briefing rooms.

Wash had easily lifted him (come on, they _were_ underwater) and carried him back to his house, luckily on the outskirts of the village, toward the shrieking baby seal and passing a few disgruntled and glaring neighbors, all of whom Wash was all too happy to glare right back at.

To Tucker, the whole trip seemed to take mere seconds and the next thing he knew, Tucker was lying in his hammock. He looked up and saw the dark grey and yellow- splotch tailed merman carrying his wailing son into the room. Tucker squeezed his eyes closed, forcing more tears out as Wash set his son down on top of his chest and laid on the other side of the screaming baby. Tucker began to rub his hands over his face, no please he really didn’t want to have to deal with this. He sobbed harder.

Tucker wiped his eyes and lifted his head to thank Wash for taking care of him, but opened his mouth and closed it again in fear for letting out another sob and further upsetting his son. He felt an arm around his shoulders and a soft humming of one of the human songs they’d been able to bring down to their village. He looked up and saw Wash gazing down at his son and shifting to softly singing the song.

“Baby mine, don’t you cry. Baby mine, dry your eyes. Rest your head close to my heart, never to part, baby of mine,” Tucker began humming the tune along with Wash’s slow singing, placing an arm over his baby as Junior began quieting down and falling asleep. Once he was sure Junior was definitely asleep, Tucker ceased his humming and muttered a whispered “Thanks Wash” while closing his eyes and drifting to sleep.

After that Tucker woke up to an empty hammock, he immediately panicked, his mind jumping to the worst conclusions of having crushed his child in the night when he saw Junior snoozing safely to his right in his crib. Tucker had let out a huge sigh of relief.

            Tucker shook his head from the memory and imitated the sigh he had been reminiscing, only filled with much more sadness. Thank God Doc was around to take care of Junior while he had to work these stupid ass missions. He made a mental note to send Doc some flowers or some shit next time he could to thank his pacifist ass. Tucker swam out of the cave to see the groups boarding the rented yacht and swam toward it, making a sweep to gather the gagglers. It took a while for each mer to dry their legs off enough once boarded on the boat but eventually they managed to get all the about 120 people boarded and on the way.

            Carolina was the final mer on board, waving to North who was still in the water, having agreed to manage the village while the others were away. She wiggled her way into one of changing booths for privacy and changed into her swimsuit and teal beach dress. When she emerged she saw that her suit didn’t quite match her dress and Tucker had to avert his eyes and look down at his own trunks and t-shirt.

            “Alright, let’s get this show on the road!” The sound of the ship blowing its horn struck Tucker out of his slight daze and he headed toward the helm of the ship where all the agents were gathering. He followed in after Carolina and York and noticed Grif hanging towards the back with monster in his hand. Tucker decided he was the best company of the people in the room.

            “Hey asshole, thought you weren’t gonna show for a while there,” Grif elbowed him and took another sip of his drink.

            “I’d never miss out on a chance to see you make an ass of yourself in front of your boy toy crush thing! Which, by the way, I need to tag along with and so will Caboose cause he wants to see Freckles again…and he’s like Church repellent.”

            Grif eyed him a bit, the rusty gears in his fat head obviously turning to figure out what Tucker’s angle was. For a split second Tucker suspected the dried merman in red swim trunks and an orange tank top to ask what Tucker’s plan was but then seemed to decide against it and proceeded to give a slight ‘humph’ of understanding and agreement before shifting his focus back unto Carolina who was telling the agents that they could all be free to have fun on the island as well but be on the ready to act quickly if anything were to happen.

            That was one of the things Tucker really liked about Grif, he could let things go easily and didn’t demand to know and suspect every aspect of his life. He was okay with being used for a purpose, especially when that purpose barely involved him. Tucker suspected laziness but knew slightly better. Tucker turned his own attention to the front of the room, he had tuned the noise out as he had heard the speech enough times and even helped write a part of it. But it looked as if Carolina was finishing up and was turning the stand over to Tex who would begin to give everyone their organizational duties for getting the groups off, surveying and boundaries of the island, and then getting back onto the ship. This changed every year, so Tucker decided it was time to tune back in.

            “Agent Caboose will be assisted by Agent Tucker with group 9 and will be in charge of supervision of anyone that leaves town, so please be on the lookout. Everyone has been given the rules not to wander off too far and to talk to me in any special cases to which I will find you and inform you of. So your job will be relatively easy and responsibility-free,” she stared right at Caboose as she said the last part, eyes flickering to Tucker with the words ‘easy’ and ‘free.’ Honestly if Caboose was good for anything, it was getting him out of doing work.

            “Agent Grif will be in charge of group 10 and is in charge of the piers. Now, Grif your, uh, sister has actually requested she come along and shadow you for the day as part of her own training to become an Agent,” Tucker looked to the tanned man on his left and saw his mortified face and low groan as he watched a few people step out of the way for Kaikaina ‘Sister’ Grif to emerge smiling and walking to her brother.

            “Isn’t this great, Dex! Family vacation! Just like when we were younger!” Her arms were outstretched above her head in celebration. Tex cut off anything Grif might have said back by adding, “Remember that you _will_ have responsibilities to make sure no one falls in and is sighted or anything, this is a _big_ responsibility so please do not shirk it.” Tex raised an eyebrow at the siblings to make a point before continuing with Florida who would be in charge of the next group and then the last group of course was Carolina, while Tex and Church were the last people off of the boat as was protocol.

            Tucker rolled his eyes at Tex’s emphasis on being responsible for the piers and it seemed that Grif had the same reaction as Tucker. Everyone knew the piers were off limits to all civilians during the trip and usually Florida and Wyoming took charge of the beach which was where the most danger was in that department, but was actually very easy because why would the mers want to spend time enjoying the ocean when it was where they’d end up at the end of the day. They would much rather spend time in town or the parks. It seemed like Tex had just wanted to scare Sister and stick her with as little responsibility as possible so she wouldn’t mess anything up at the same time. The clever bitch.

            “Geez, I guess they’re going to really depend on us, eh bro?”

            “No they’re not, but never mind that! When did _you_ enlist in the program?! I thought I was ‘being a slave to the man’ and all that! I never thought you’d want to join,” Grif pointed a finger at Sister.

            “Yeah but then I saw how much fun it could be! Secret missions, secret intelligence, special passes in stuff, I can get away with so much more by joining! I couldn’t let you have all the fun and glory to yourself, now could I?” Sister responded, proudly placing her knuckles on her waist and smiling gleefully.

            Grif frowned a bit more, “You really could have. Now I’m going to have to look after you all day!”

            “No you’re not, we’re going to be in charge of the docks! Doi.”

            “Uh, doof, no one is allowed at the docks. Hell, no one wants to go to the docks, no one’s going to be there! They basically just told us we have the day off. They do that for everyone cause it’s a day off for us too, except Carolina, Tex and Church usually keep an eye and an ear out just in case,” Grif lightly bonked his younger sister’s forehead and added in a “Doi” as he did so.

            “Please, what kind of crazy plans can you possibly have for today besides eating and drinking the town dry with this asshole?” She pointed her thumb towards Tucker who gave an incredulous look but stayed silent. It _had_ been what they’d done for the past couple of years, so it would honestly come as no surprise.

            Grif’s voice pitched in defense, “I might have plans! And either way, even if hanging with Fucker Tucker were my only plans I still wouldn’t want to babysit you!”

            “Well what else am I supposed to do? This is only my second time legging, I don’t know the area! I’ve got to find the best places to rave,” Sister trailed off at the last part and turned to Tucker. “Do you know of any places?”

            There was a slight pause where Tucker was sincerely contemplating the best parties on land before he switched to anger, “Before I answer that, do you guys call me Fucker Tucker a lot or is this a recent development? Because I don’t think I love it.”

            “Well buck up, cause now that we know you hate it, it’s your name,” Grif clapped a hand on Tucker’s back. Tucker thought he felt nails dig into him and said,

            “Well, Sister, sorry to disappoint but no parties I can think of,” Tucker sighed in relief as Grif’s hand released its terrifying grip on his shoulder. Sister looked down in disappointment.

            “Whatever, I knew you guys were lame,” she smugly said before walking away. Once sure she was out of earshot Grif sighed and rubbed at his head, obviously thinking about how he was going to have to ditch or distract his sister when he went to see his cyborg. Tucker just knew it was going to involve him.

            “Hey Fucker, do you think-”

            “I’m not babysitting your sister. I have my own shit today. Take her the fuck with you to meet her future brother-in-law,” Grif blushed and Tucker rolled his eyes and continued. “Look, my thing should only take like an hour, afterwards I can meet up with you with Sarge and the others if that helps at all.”

            The look of extreme gratefulness and relief on Grif’s face was all the confirmation Tucker needed. His presence would allow Grif to leave Kai without her brother at Sarge’s house because he sure as hell would never trust her alone or with Caboose- she would start a god damn rave! Tucker only hoped that his talk with Wash would go smoothly.

            Carolina’s voice startled Tucker out of his thoughts a few minutes later, “We will be pulling up to the docks soon, so please get into your ordered groups and check in with the Agent in charge of your group.” Tucker saw Grif take a big breath and make his way toward his brightly colored sister who was already with their group. That big baby, he thinks that he’s having a bad time. On his way down to the main deck, Tucker caught a glimpse of Caboose leaning by the railing off on the side of the boat staring off toward the island, as he got closer Tucker noticed the man wearing blue was looking toward Sarge’s beach. He wondered if Caboose could see Freckles running around, barking for Caboose.

            “Come on, buddy we have to check in on our group,” Tucker grabbed hold of Caboose’s arm and tugged him away from the railing. They quickly got their group under control and in order, only having to find two missing children and calm down three first time leggers. Tucker finally found a time take a break and sit down while Caboose, the crazy stamina king took care of a few more things. As stupid as that guy was, he was still an agent and could be trusted with a few things still.

            Tucker took a deep breath, how was he this tired already? The day hadn’t even begun! He started back toward Caboose who was currently engaged in what appeared to be an argument with a member of their group, when a voice caught Tucker’s attention. No. No way could he be here. Tucker would have noticed by now, or someone would have told him! Slowly, Tucker turned, terrified that what, or rather who, he was about to see would indeed be as he suspected.

            A man around the same age as Tucker stood laughing with whoever he was talking to and holding the hand of a small child that Tucker faintly recognized by appearance but knew exactly who he was.

            “God fuckin shit,” Tucker muttered under his breath. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me right now,” he made his way over to the bespectacled man in purple holding the child’s hand. The man saw him before he could reach him and the smile on his face immediately fell as he picked the kid up and, apologizing politely to whoever he had been speaking to, started toward Tucker.

            “Heeeeey buddy-”

            “Doc, don’t start with me. I don’t even know where to start,” never raising his voice in fear of scaring Junior. Junior who, now that he was up close, Tucker couldn’t stop staring at. He often wondered what his son would look like without the selkie skin, or if he would be able to take off the skin in the first place with the merman tail.

            “Tucker it was my idea, we wanted to surprise you,” Doc explained.

            “Well, you succeeded! Consider me baffled and near speechless with what you’ve done,” in truth Tucker was disappointed most of all. He was allowing the anger he felt towards Doc to appear as his most prominent emotion at the moment, but this was one memory, one part of Junior’s life that he really wanted to take part in seeing as most of Junior’s infancy years had been so difficult and they wanted to wait until he was a toddler to try and even see if he could leg like the mers.

            Before Tucker could do or say anything else, the boat had reached the docks and Wyoming was shooing Tucker to his group while ordering Doc back into his group. This was just great, yet another stress to add to Tucker’s growing list of responsibilities for the day. He had adults to babysit during the vacation day he’d always wanted with his kid. Granted, this did include just about as much Wash as he had dreamed of.

            Tucker had a terrible time paying attention the whole docking and getting off of the boat before finally disbanding. All Tucker could think about was the fact that Junior’s skin was a slightly lighter shade than his own, almost like dark caramel. And how his eyes looked just like they did with his skin on, only more human-like. Tucker liked the way his son looked at him, recognizing his father and smiling while reaching up to him with his arms (oh god, arms! Not fins!). Tucker briefly wondered if Junior could speak, not the strange barking that Tucker could slightly understand, but with a soft small childish voice that could laugh and- Tucker caught himself gazing over at Wyoming and Florida’s group.

            Not that he didn’t adore his son normally, he just had always wondered what it would be like to be able to communicate or relate with his son. Which led him back to feeling angry that Doc could think he could just not ask him about one of the most important moments in his son’s life. Or that Church and Tex and Carolina, goddamn those guys! They know exactly who all is going on the trip and they decided to go along with Doc and not tell him!

            Fuck, getting angry about it was going to do nothing for Tucker and his day. He had other things to worry about. Like Wash. Fuck, Wash. How was he supposed to explain anything to Wash without sounding like a lunatic and possibly exposing them all?

            Tucker nearly fell over when a hand clasped his back suddenly jarring him from his thoughts, but also legit whoever hit him was crazy strong. Caboose stood next to him, lowering his hand from Tucker’s back.

            “You looked like you were thinking hard, and whenever I do that bad things happen so I wanted to stop you! Sorry if I hurt you,” Caboose explained. Damn, that guy was fucking perceptive when he wanted to be. Tucker smiled and thanked the other agent then glanced around himself.

            “Caboose, did you organize everybody and send them off without me?” Tucker asked, just noticing that they were alone.

            “Yeah, but I figured you would repay me by taking me to Freckles! Plus it was easy, I just pushed the ones that didn’t want to go until they wanted to leave!” Tucker stared incredulously at Caboose. One second he’s intuitive and the next he’s back to being an idiot, not to say he isn’t an effective idiot because of aforementioned lack of others around them.

            “I have a few things to take care of before I can take you to your dog, but I bet if you find Grif he would love to go to Sarge’s with you, I’ll catch up later.” Caboose nodded and bearing a brilliant and somewhat terrifying smile, burst over to the siblings who were just finishing sending off their own group.

            “Well that’s one thing taken care of for now,” Tucker spoke aloud to himself before heading over to Florida’s disbanding group. He felt rather happy with himself when he saw the nervous look on Doc’s face as he approached. He really wished he could yell and berate the medic merman into the ground and take Junior to a park and watch him run around and play for the rest of the day…..damn he really wanted to do that BUT he knew he just fucking couldn’t. He glanced at the clock tower near the docks and internally groaned when he realized how late it already was. It was 11:30 which meant he had less than an hour to sort Doc out, make sure Caboose wasn’t wandering away, and find and meet with Wash.

            In the end, Tucker calmly talked it out with Doc and agreed to meet up later. Doc had apparently spoken to Church and Carolina and that had been why Tucker and Caboose were assigned the easy area, so that Tucker could spend the day with them. Tucker knew Doc suspected something when Tucker explained that he had a few responsibilities left to deal with but aside from some serious side eye, he remained silent until he walked toward town talking to Junior about getting some lunch. Tucker had at least gotten to hold his son for a while and play with him a bit while he and Doc were discussing their plans and for this short amount of time Tucker was relieved of all his stress. He couldn’t wait for the day to be over. He also couldn’t wait to see Wash, he just wished it were simpler.

            Tucker groaned and rubbed his head, he felt the oncoming of a migraine.  Maybe some coffee would help, he entered Wash’s coffee shop and put on a face for the blonde man working behind the counter.

            “Hey, Tucker! I get off in a few minutes so don’t worry, can I grab you a drink? Maybe you can be my last customer. On the house,” Tucker looked around the shop and noticed it was empty save for a few hipsters and someone behind the counter who Tucker assumed to be Wash’s replacement.

            Tucker nodded and ordered a cup of caffeine with extra caffeine smiled a bit when Wash teased him about getting ready for a long day, teasing him about their talk later but internally Tucker wondered if Wash knew how Tucker’s day was already going. When he handed Tucker his drink he poured himself a cup of black coffee and took off his apron. When Wash started toward the front door that lead to the main street, Tucker stopped him and asked if there was a back way they could take. Tucker wasn’t ready for anyone else to see Wash and interfere just yet.

            Wash gave Tucker a strange look but lead the way to a staircase that lead to the second story of the building that lead them to a fire escape stairway that lead to an alleyway. Along the way many curses and spilling of coffee were strewn around. When they finally landed on the ground Tucker’s cup was half empty, granted most of that was when Tucker gulped a large quantity of it the minute it was handed to him. Wash miraculously hadn’t spilled a goddamn drop.

            Wash tugged at Tucker’s arm, “I live like two minutes from here, and we can go through the back ways if you don’t want to go along the main road.” Tucker could only nod and glance around, nervous of being seen by…anyone really before looking down at his hand which was entwined with Wash’s as he lead the darker skinned man along through the shadows.

            They were at a door within what seemed like seconds as Tucker internally freaked out and attempted to keep his cool on the outside; his hand was released when Wash brought out his keys and entered the surprisingly brightly lit room. The first thing Tucker really noticed was the shear amount of yellow covering the entire place. Which strangely enough didn’t blind him, it was more of a dull yellow almost like a yellow marker that had been slightly tainted by the black marker.

            Tucker sauntered into the room after Wash dazed and looking up and around, he hardly noticed when his host disappeared through a doorway into his kitchen and Tucker sat himself down on a grey-looking and…furry couch. Tucker sneezed and looked around, he knew there had to be an animal somewhere. He yelped a bit when a fluffy black cat leapt into his lap seemingly out of nowhere and nuzzled his stomach and his head snapped up when he heard a chuckle from the direction of the doorframe.

            “Sorry, he does that. He’s the youngest and a bit of a attention whore,” Wash was holding out a cup of water which Tucker gratefully took to relieve the terrible dry gross taste in his mouth, both of them having chugged while running and dropped their cups on the way over. Wash stat down in the chair next to Tucker.

            “That one’s Cray, short for Crayola. The others should be around here somewhere,” Tucker gave Wash a look. He remembered Wash used to love all the sea horses and other fish they kept as pets in the past, he supposed it made sense that would be a part of Wash that was ingrained no matter what. Tucker smiled and pet Crayola as Wash spoke,

            “I didn’t name them, I adopted them from the pet shelter nearby so you can stop with the judgement,” Tucker laughed and brought the cat up to look him in the eyes. The cat mewed and tried to swat its paw at Tucker who nuzzled it and let it go when it meowed louder.

            “I guess he doesn’t like me,” Tucker rubbed at the back of his neck as he watched the cat walk off.

            “Nonsense, he’s just a restless thing. He loves you!” Tucker asked about the other cats, Wash apparently had a total of 5, but he kept a window open so they wander in and out most of the time.

            “The hospital recommended I have some kind of companion and when I stopped by the shelter I couldn’t choose just one and they’re all so independent I barely have any responsibilities so I can take care of myself for the most part,” this perked Tucker’s attention. He had wanted to know all about what Wash could remember from the hospital and the accident. After all, that could make this explanation a whole lot easier.

            “Speaking of that, you said it had been a few months. Do you still have problems with your head or what?” To this, Wash frowned and looked away from Tucker into the distance, his eyes unfocused.

            “I have dreams sometimes or little flashes of feelings like déjà vu, but I rarely remember anything long term. It’s mostly a nuisance than anything else,” Wash’s eyes flickered back and forth to Tucker and crinkled as his face brightened.

“Actually, if I’m not mistaken that’s what you came here for! To remind me of who I was! Who I am! I can’t stand not knowing and feeling like an outcast around here. I hate how they look at me like I’m a homeless three-legged dog,” while Wash ranted he had stood up and sat himself on the couch close to Tucker who shifted slightly away from the grabby close-proximity Wash.

“So, how did you know me? We must’ve been friends, right?” Wash was leaning toward him, smiling, and he had an expectant look on his face. It was then that Tucker realized he had no clue how to go about this; Wash would undoubtedly not believe him, at first anyway. Once he splashed sea water on him, he’d turn back. Tucker just hoped his memory was restorable and not really lost forever. Tucker realized Wash’s smile was beginning to fall.

“Yeah, we were really close. But that’s not, I didn’t come here to talk about…us. I mean our relationship to each other, we can get to that. There’s something bigger that you need to remember. Er, I _want_ you to remember!”

Wash’s smile had completely disappeared by now and his brows were furrowed. Tucker had started babbling and he was starting to scare Wash away. Tucker took a deep breath, trying to calm himself down (and maybe Wash a little too), and continued. Cautiously Tucker asked,

“Wash, do you know how to swim?”

“I don’t know? The doctors didn’t want me straining myself too hard and I haven’t exactly wanted to go. I just always got a bad feeling when I think of the sea,” a small shudder visibly ran through the blonde. He continued,

“They said that they found me washed up and naked on the beach with a few lacerations on my torso and a gash on my head. I only had this,” he pulled at a string around his neck to pull out a necklace with a small pearl on it. Tucker recognized it immediately, obviously seeing as he had been the one to give it to Wash as a sort of…promise. His own hand wandered up to his neck toward the chain, but realizing this he began rubbing the back of his neck instead.

“Turns out it’s real! I was low on money and I nearly sold it when I found out,” Tucker’s heart nearly stopped, “but there was just something special about it, I knew I had to keep it close or something bad could happen.” Wash had taken off the necklace and was gazing at it while rubbing the pearl softly. He offered Tucker the necklace, who let his fingers ghost over the pearl then he met Wash’s eyes and smiled, retracting his hand. Wash lifted the chain back over his head and put the necklace back on.

“I guess this along with my name are the only connections left to my life before the accident, so that also made it kind of hard to let go.”

“…Wash-”

“It’s just been infuriating, you know? Not having any clue who you are and being constantly unsure and I kind of freaked out when I first woke up they had to strap me down! What kind of person was I that my first instinct was to fight whoever was by me?! Please Tucker, you’re the first clue I’ve ever gotten besides this goddam necklace!” Wash had started tugging anxiously on the necklace.

Tucker felt the urge to reassure his long lost boyfriend with kisses, but restrained himself to just inching closer and placing his hand on top of Wash’s.

“Why do I trust you so much, Tucker? I met you fucking yesterday! I don’t trust anybody, I barely trusted the doctors, I hardly trust anyone in my work enough to even speak to them,” Wash gripped onto Tucker’s and lifted it in his hysterics. Tucker slowly pulled his hands away, as much as he didn’t want to.

“Look, David- first things first. There’s something more important than you…and me,” Wash looked slightly offended when Tucker removed his hands, but it quickly turned to one of confusion.

“You…called me David?” Shit, Tucker only called him that in private and when things were really serious. It had just slipped out, he hadn’t meant to add to the confusion. No one calls Wash ‘David’ anymore, anyway.

“That’s your first name, what did you think you were named after an American state? Washington is a nickname from you and some of your….um, let’s go with coworkers for now. They _are_ all named after states.” Wash chuckled slightly and shook his head,

“You’d think this would bring back some memories, or sound familiar but I’m not getting anything but feelings and that’s mostly where you are involved! Are you sure you can’t start off with who you are?” Tucker shook his head and got up. Pacing and scratching at his head, he responded,

“It’s wouldn’t make any sense, we have to start off with the big picture before we can get into the details!” Wash shifted to the edge of the couch, hands clasped together,

“Can you at least tell me how we met? Then maybe I can get some context! And maybe I’ll start remembering!” Wash was beaming. Tucker knew he had no other choice but to work with him here. He took a huge breath and pulled his shirt up slightly above his belly button. He pointed to a slight scar along his right hipbone.

“The first time we met, you knifed me and gave me this,” Wash’s face was awestruck. Tucker smiled,

“Don’t worry, we were sort of enemies at the time and for the record I got a few hits in. That splotchy scar on your right shoulder was from when I shoved you against a sharp part of a rock,” Wash’s hand wandered to his shoulder and started rubbing it, as though feeling a ghost of the pain from when it was hit. Tucker continued,

“It’s sort of weird to explain without getting into the big picture, but we work…worked for some pretty serious people. I honestly think I’m lucky you didn’t kill me,” Tucker looked at his own scar and smiled to himself, reminiscing of a different time. When he looked back up at Wash, half expecting to share a look of remembrance like they used to when talking about the scars, he was met with a look of sadness, like Wash felt he was invading on a private moment. Tucker’s smile fell and he dropped his shirt.

“So this isn’t bringing _anything_ back?” Wash shook his head, still rubbing at his shoulder. Tucker walked back over to Wash and waved the hand rubbing his shoulder away and replaced it with his own, rubbing small circles with his thumb. Tucker thought maybe the touch would feel familiar enough.

Apparently it brought back some sort of muscle memory because Wash’s left hand raised to Tucker’s waist and his thumb began stroking along the long scar Felix had left on the aqua clad mer through his shirt. Tucker shifted and raised his other hand around Wash’s neck and replaced the first hand in rubbing the blonde’s shoulder, effectively moving the two much closer together. Wash looked up from the spot on Tucker’s shirt that he had dreamily fixated onto in favor of looking into the darker man’s eyes. He whispered,

“Tucker? I think I’m remembering something,” Tucker smiled and started to back his head away and ask what it was when Wash grabbed the back of Tucker’s head with the hand not on his waist and pulled their faces together.

If he were to be honest, Tucker wasn’t even surprised at the action, though he was slightly caught off guard at the suddenness and it took his brain a few seconds to catch up to the situation. As Wash’s hand started to lax behind his head, Tucker’s only grabbed tighter and began kissing back. This had honestly been exactly what Tucker had wanted. This was what he had been missing for two years now and he was _not_ about to let it end so soon.

Tucker moaned and the two slowly made their way into a lying position on the couch with Wash on top, slowly pushing Tucker’s shirt up and rubbing at his hip. When they finally parted, for definite need of air Tucker smiled, eyes still closed. He was imagining for a second that nothing had changed and that they were right back where they had been before the mission. They lay there panting for what felt like a few minutes, but in reality was much shorter than that.

“Did _that_ bring anything back?” Tucker inquired. He hoped to mermaid God that it had, and that this would be an easy rest of the day. Wash shook his head. There was no mermaid God, or not a merciful one. Tucker moved them up and untangled himself from the blond, who whined lowly as he did so. Tucker pulled at the chain around his neck and revealed the small oyster underneath.

“Wash, we gave each other these about six months before you went into the coma. This is a real oyster and that around your neck is the real pearl from this oyster. We didn’t have to pay for these, we got them from the ocean. Oysters this small are only found deep in the ocean, like further than anyone around here can dive. Want to know how we got them?” Tucker knew this was the only way he could please Wash and get out the biggest part of the story. He knew Wash wouldn’t question why they had the matching necklaces, their actions moments before had already answered enough for the time.

“We hired a professional? I don’t understand,” Wash narrowed his eyes, which were trained on Tucker’s oyster. Tucker chuckled,

“No. No, Wash we didn’t. And I know you don’t understand cause you were caught up in trying to remember me,” Wash looked like he was about to hit Tucker who continued. “Not that I didn’t want to do that but the Wash I knew would much rather get to the important stuff first,” there was a pause as Tucker let Wash soak that in.

“Wash we got these ourselves. How? Because we are mermen, Wash. You don’t believe me, I know. But I swear to you that it’s the truth, I can-”

“Bullshit,”

“E-excuse me?” Wash stood up and faced Tucker. Tucker knew this feeling, it was the intimidating feeling he got whenever he and Wash got into an argument and Wash physically towered over him. Tucker wavered, he usually never stood down ever when arguing with Wash but it had been so long,

“Bullshit! This is bullshit and I don’t know what kind of terrible joke this is that you’re playing, but it’s terrible. I know we knew each other, but I never should have trusted you. You- you’re the only link I have right now, _why_ can’t you just tell me the truth?!” Tucker felt a rise in his chest,

“Wash I haven’t lied to you once! If this was a joke, there would have been a lot more sex involved. And you want to talk about trust?!” He shoved his host who stumbled back and tripped, thwacking his head on the coffee table. Tucker hesitated but was still enraged so when Wash stood up appearing to have no problem but rubbing the back of his head, he continued, “You once convinced me to trust you as you distracted me and one of your coworkers kidnapped my kid!” Without missing a beat Wash retorted back, still rubbing his head,

“Oh please _Lavernius_ , you always bring that up! I helped you get him back, didn’t I?” This was not an unfamiliar argument for the two to have.

“That’s not the point! He still almost- wait. What?” Tucker had started to respond as he automatically did whenever this conversation came up before realizing what Wash had said. He looked over to the other man who was wide eyed slowly shifted to holding his head in his hands, looking at the floor.

“…Wash?” Said man was currently backing himself against a wall and slid down, breathing slightly heavily. Tucker slowly approached the shaking man and crouched down next to him, eventually just settling himself down as well. The two sat in silence for a while as Wash’s heavy breathing filled the air and Tucker softy attempted to guide him through his breathing. Something his mother had taught him, breathing in through the nose and out the mouth. Tucker used one hand to motion these actions and the other to rub circles into Washington’s back in comfort. After dragging his hands down his face and letting out a shaky breath, Wash finally broke the tense silence,

“I remember,” this, of course, took Tucker by surprise, he removed his hand from Wash’s back. He nearly had no idea what to say before deciding on,

“What do you remember?” Tucker remained extremely cautious, if Wash remembered certain times in their lives, he could very well assume Tucker was anything but his friend. Luckily, no matter what he would know Tucker really wasn’t lying about what they were. But it was what came out of Wash’s mouth next that really worried him,

“Locus…and Felix, Tucker I remember why I couldn’t remember,” this was exactly what Tucker had been afraid of. Tucker remembered the incident in vivid detail, mostly because he ran it through his head nearly every night.


	3. Cavers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Slightly shorter, but backstory time! Hype game

It had been a normal mission at first. Tucker and Washington had been paired together, something that had become the norm since Wash and the Freelancers had joined and sort of taken over the Blood Gulch project. They had found that the two actually worked pretty well together and in the face of Locus and Felix the project needed the team with the most trust between the two, and the most hatred for the other two.

A little backstory to the backstory, Felix and Locus were mercenaries from a neighboring mer-town controlled by a power hungry dictator. They had been messing with the project from the inside for the longest time, trying to find any weaknesses and ways to take down the project which enacted as the army of the colony. Felix had been an agent. A very reliable agent. For a year and a half, almost as long as Tucker had known Wash.

One day when Tucker, Caboose, and Felix had been on reconnaissance and had actually run into Locus hiding away in a trench. Here they actually found Wash and Carolina who had been on their own secret mission following Locus. Long story short, Felix betrayed them all and helped Locus escape after cutting Tucker and Carolina with a poisoned knife as a distraction.

Felix never could keep his big ass mouth shut, so he obviously gloated a bunch and made a very good enemy of Tucker while Locus was strangely obsessed with Wash, and Carolina a bit, effectively creeping them out.

For once Tucker was actually being serious and not spouting innuendoes every other minute (instead it was about every other 10 minutes), which was the first hint to Wash that something was up. The blond kept casting worrisome glances towards his (newly made at the time) boyfriend while Tucker was oddly silent and concentrated. Felix and Tucker had actually been somewhat close, not friends close, but enough so that Tucker definitely trusted Felix. Washington personally had never quite warmed up to the silver-tongued merman that appeared out of nowhere with so many qualifications.

However, Washington had had his own shit to deal with. Locus had been taunting him since day one, not that Wash told Tucker more than 20% of his real annoyance with the fucking prick, he couldn’t let Locus get to him too much; he wouldn’t let him. Finding that Felix and Locus were actually working together had simply been the icing on the goddam cake, that the duo was messing with the people he cared about as well as himself.

Many of the other, probably more skilled, agents were busy out and about on other missions, Tucker and Wash were the best they could spare. Otherwise, Wash assumed they would have sent Florida and Wyoming. Now those two made a good pair no matter what the occasion, working like a well-oiled machine.

Washington shook these thoughts from his head, he didn’t really want his mind to wander to where his older coworkers and oil were involved. He nearly expected to hear a ‘Bow Chika Bow Wow’ from Tucker, momentarily forgetting he couldn’t read minds.

They continued in concentrated silence until they carefully turned a corner. A yell caught the pair off guard and they turned their heads to the right to find Felix waving his hand and smirking, no Locus in sight. That was, until Tucker started to feel something against the top of his head. A net, it was a set up!

Well, they had sort of known it was going to be a trap from the minute they set out, but they hadn’t expected the mercs to play this unfairly, believing Locus to have some sense of decency…and of sport. Tucker shoved Wash away and grabbed the end of the net nearest his boyfriend towards himself.

Wash cried out in surprise, but was cut off when he saw a shark tooth knife headed toward his face, he swiftly dodged and brought out a knife of his own. Tucker became an afterthought, but was still always in the corner of his eye. Wash knew Tucker could handle his own, but he was still caught in a freaking net.

The aqua-tailed merman wriggled inside the net, his back thumping against a rock. He made sure to keep his face forward so he could still defend himself. Tucker reached for his sword and grunted as he attempted to slice his way through the netting wrapped all around him. In the meantime Felix swam agonizingly slowly over to him, glancing at Wash whose attention was taken by his partner.

Felix took out a pressure powered underwater gun, from one of his many pouches strapped around his torso and began shooting coral pellets at the trapped soldier. The fox-eyed fucker started missing on purpose and gradually aimed closer as he inched nearer and nearer to his target. Tucker cried out in surprise as the first pellet snagged his shoulder, having put all of his attention into trying to escape his confines.

A few minor wounds in Tucker’s tail and torso later, Felix floated next to his target. Felix chuckled as he pulled the net off of Tucker and rammed him against the rock by the neck. This was not a new position for the two, however usually Washington or Caboose was there to pull Felix off of Tucker and chase the traitor away. Tucker was also usually not just shot at about a dozen times. Luckily, Tucker was also a trained soldier, he still somewhat knew what he was doing. He used his tail to kick the…slightly taller but not by much mer away from him.

“Wow, shorty! Learned a few moves! Maybe you _don’t_ need a bodyguard anymore, not to say you don’t still bring him around. Probably for the adrenaline sex, am I right?” Felix taunted. That was his special form of bullets, words. Somehow Felix could always find just the right ones to make Tucker see red. But not today. Today Tucker was determined to stay as levelheaded as his boyfriend, he would not let the traitor’s words get to him. Felix continued,

“Or haven’t you two broken up yet? Wash hasn’t found someone better? Less messed up? Someone less likely to cheat on him?”

“You and I both know I haven’t and wouldn’t ever do that to him, _Felix_ ,” his name came out like poison on Tucker’s tongue. “God knows you didn’t try and fail epically. It’s no wonder _you_ aren’t getting any from _your_ partner. Especially when he’s way too obsessed with Wash to even see you,” Tucker smirked and slashed at Felix making the orange and black tailed merman drop his gun which disappeared into a crevice below. His opponent’s words obviously stung Felix, who sneered and began slashing wildly which Tucker easily dodged while smiling. Meanwhile, Washington was busy taunting his own opponent,

“You think you’re a real soldier, Locus? You think your little mercenary game is the same as actual warfare? You wouldn’t last a day,” Locus responded with a growl and a shove towards the, now closer, surface. Washington appeared to have the upper hand throughout most of the fight… that was until a cry grabbed the attention of both him and Locus.

“Tucker!” Wash began towards said merman who began floating towards the surface with a knife handle sticking out of his gut, eyes closed. Felix turned to the remaining agent who was now bulleting through the water toward the streak-haired merman. He was blind with terror stricken rage and a need for revenge. Locus close behind, ready for a double team. Thank God Wash was once a secret crazy super soldier with super training before sticking with Blood Gulch or he would have been ready or able for that fight. The three drifted toward the mouth of the nearby cave.

While Wash distracted the other two, Tucker groaned and pulled the knife out, red starting to drift upwards as Tucker put a hand to his wound. He slowly managed his way over to above the fighting group and began pulling at rocks, and loosened the pile there. Finally he found that the last push to completely collapse the rocks to close off the mouth of the cave would have to come from inside. Without hesitation Tucker, still losing blood, swam his way into the cave, thumping Locus on the head with his tail on the way down and knocking him further into the cave, caught by an underwater current.

Felix cried out and went for Tucker but was held off by Washington. Full of angry adrenaline, Felix rammed Wash’s head against a rock and kneed him in the stomach then let him go in favor of reaching Tucker.

“Why didn’t you stay stabbed?! You’re going to pay for that!” Felix bypassed Tucker’s attempts to fend him off, and kneed his still bleeding gut. Tucker doubled over and allowed himself to be dragged back towards the cave entrance.

“I am going to take your fucking sword and make sure you drown as your lungs fill with your own blood and water,” coughing, Tucker replied.

“Guh, Jesus that’s dark,” Tucker moaned in pain.

“I am _so_ done with you fucking idiots messing with all of my plans, so I’m silencing you jackasses for fucking good,”

Wash groaned and his vision was blurring together, the only clearly discernable thing was the faint sound of Tucker coughing up blood. Taking a deep breath, the yellow-trim tailed merman pushed himself through the water. With one final powerful kick toward the person he loves most in the world and the person he hates most. He separated the two, his vision still fuzzed out. Washington grabbed the orangey blur, pushed the blue blur out of the cave, and thwacked the cave ceiling.

Wash’s vision slowly faded back to normal as he turned his head for one last look towards Tucker. He drank in as much as he could, ignoring the thrashing mess in his arms. His last sight was his name dripping from Tucker’s mouth, drowned out by the rumbling of the rocks and the irritating yelling coming from the mercenary. Then a well- aimed elbow hit him right in the temple as a wave of rocks threw the two inside the cave backwards into the current at the back of the cave, and the world went black and cold.

On the other side of the rockalanche, Tucker’s world was crumbling, he was screaming and crying for his partner. He immediately started attempting to get through the rocks, digging into the rocks one by one. He had only one goal on his mind. He had to get to Wash. His fingers began to bleed and the edges of his vision fuzzed and blacked. Tucker panted and stopped when he felt incredibly cold and drained, he fell against the rock pile and looked down at his still bleeding stomach and began to feel sick.

“Shit,” he took a deep breath and forced himself to grab a seaweed and wrapped it around his torso. Still holding his wound, Tucker knew he wouldn’t be able to make it all the way back to the others. At least not alone. There was only one way he would be able to make it out of this, Tucker caught sight of a seahorse and called it over. He slowly kept on trucking as much as he could after sending it off to find Caboose or Church or someone…anyone to help. The thought to just give in constantly running through his mind, go back and try to follow that current as far as possible knowing fully well he wouldn’t make it back from that. But he couldn’t leave Junior behind, he loved the kid too much.

Tucker was so sorely disappointed in himself every day for not having fought harder, pushing through the fire spouting from every wound to get to Wash. Wash was always coming to his rescue and paying the price for it while Tucker got off scot-free to fuck up another day. He shook his head, tears threatening to fall,

“Wash, I’m so sorry, if I had-” Wash cut him off.

“What? Sorry? Tucker you didn’t elbow me in the face! You didn’t wake me up by beating me and then proceeded to bash my head a few times before abandoning me to the riptide to wash up onto a nearly abandoned beach in the middle of the night! Tucker, those douchebag mercenaries are to blame!” With every word, Tucker flinched and cringed a little more over and over. Washington grabbed his long lost boyfriend by the shoulders,

“I could have, SHOULD have tried harder! Fought harder! Wash there are so many things I should have and could have done to prevent what happened to you!” Wash lifted his hand to Tucker’s shoulder and started,

“Tucker, I know you did all you could,” but Tucker jerked away, absentmindedly clutching at his side.

“No Wash! I had the opportunity to kill Felix so many times and I hesitated every single one of them! All because I was friends with the guy for like two months. I had zero intention on capturing Felix that day, I wanted to kill him. To crush him under that pile of rocks or, or to separate him and Locus and be able to corner him so he couldn’t wriggle his stupid way out of another fucking jam!” Tucker wiped his eyes with one arm, the weight of the memory and those two years of self-hatred crashing down on him while all Wash could do is watch. Unease and guilt began to settle in Wash’s stomach,

“All I had to do was stab the fucker while you had him pinned but I had to get my win, I had to hurt him the way he hurt me…us and separate them! I had to gloat! If I hadn’t done what I did, you wouldn’t have been hurt and lost and felt alone for so long! Junior wouldn’t have asked where you were! And Caboose! Oh Caboose and his abandonment issues! It took me weeks to convince him you didn’t leave on purpose,” Tucker took a deep, shaky breath.

“All the time, knowing that it was all my fault!” Tucker sniffed and then his eyes turned hard and he clenched his fists. This took Wash by surprise,

“Then they showed back up. We had determined that all three of you guys were dead and stopped looking for them…and you. But then on fucking reconnaissance with Palomo, Grif, and Bitters they fucking came back. They were too close to home for them to think they could fight us but they stuck around just long enough to gloat about killing you and saying that we’d never even find your body. The only good that came of that was finding out that we had hurt them. Bad. When Palomo and Grif got a few hits on them while Bitters held me back from getting close, it was easy to tell they weren’t completely fine,” Tucker chuckled a little.

“I think I sent Grif like a week’s worth of sweets and I may have actually complimented Palomo a few times after that.”

“Grif and Palomo? As in Mr. Naps-all-the-time and tiny Tucker fanboy? They actually went up against Felix and Locus?”

“Like I said, those two knew not to start too much of a fight. And well, I think our boys wanted to get back at those bastards…the impact of your disappearance wasn’t exactly subtle,” Tucker sat back down staring at the ground, lost in the memory of what he did those months following Washington’s apparent death. After a few moments Wash sighed,

“So I’m back,” he scratched at his head, “for the most part. What are we going to do now?”


	4. A Hot Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Grif kind of tricks Simmons into a date and boy is his stomach bottomless though

Simmons had been living with Sarge on this remote Pacific Island, that was quickly turning into a tourist town, for exactly 6 months, 2 weeks, and 6 days. He wasn’t going to lie, every single day had been something new. If it wasn’t meeting weirdos on his bike, or following another of Sarge’s weird plans, or hearing Donut say any sentence, then it was going into town and finding that the amount of people on the island had doubled in the last 12 hours.  
Simmons groaned internally, he hated giant crowds. Sarge has said that a tour boat of people would be arriving to stay the day but he didn’t think it would be this many people! He headed for the beach near the docks, for some reason these tourists seemed to avoid the area. Silently thanking whatever sea gods were out there, Simmons settled down on the edge of the dock and dug into his bag, he took out his notebook and bit into an apple.  
It was a hot, sunny day with plenty of clouds in the sky to occasionally cover the sun and provide momentary relief from the heat. It was on these days that Simmons liked to sit around and stare out into the water for as long as his anxiety would let him. Granted he did some research and worked in the windows of time between his basking, so some work did get done.  
He placed all of his papers inside his binder and tucked them safely inside his bag so as to make sure they didn’t fly away. Taking off his glasses and setting them down, he leaned back onto the hot wood of the pier and closed his eyes, listening to the soft sounds of the water, the birds, the distant sound of the city, and the arguing people nearby. Wait. Simmons scrunched his face in discontent.  
Who the hell would be yelling so annoyingly on such a perfect, beautiful day? He pulled himself up, prying away from the comforting and warm wood. The pair were hardly twenty feet away from him screaming about… raves?  
“Do you mind?” Simmons turned around, only to shut his mouth in horror when he saw who it was. He didn’t recognize the woman, no- teenager wearing yellow, but he sure as hell recognized the chubby man in orange walking alongside her. Simmons however, rebounded fairly quickly,  
“Are you here to throw me in the water? Cause then this would be the second time we’ve met with you trying to kill me.” Simmons was met with sputtering and a very confused look.  
“Who’s this guy?” The girl’s eyes flickered between Simmons and Grif until they landed on Simmons’ metallic arm, “Oh my God, Grif! Don’t tell me this is the guy?!”  
A hand was instantly placed over the girl’s mouth, preventing her from spouting anything else, “Please excuse my sister, she rambles like an idiot. Well, not ‘like one’ because she is an idiot.”  
There was a defensive muffled “Heeey” from Grif’s sister from behind his hand. But Grif continued, “So I’m guessing the heavy- ass arm makes it hard to stay afloat?”  
“It would, if I knew how to swim at all,” Simmons took a few steps toward the siblings and reached out his non-metal hand toward the girl.  
“Simmons. In case this fatass didn’t tell you.”  
“Kaikaina, but you can call me Kai. Or Sister, that’s what everyone else calls me,” she responded after prying her brother’s hand away from her face. She pointed a thumb at herself as she spoke and then took the red-head’s hand, giving it a single hearty shake. This left Simmons internally screaming at how hard she grasped his hand and shaking it off when she released him. He used the same hand to flip Grif off when he chuckled at this action. Grif looked around behind Simmons,  
“What are you doing out here, anyway? Obviously it’s not for a mid-day swim,” Grif walked around Simmons to his bag, picking it up and holding it out of reach from its owner who was attempting to grab it back.  
“It’s my research! It’s the whole reason I’m here and everything I’ve done since getting here!”  
“Really? Can I see?” Grif started opening the bag,  
“I doubt you’d understand a word,” Simmons rolled his eyes and held his hand out, “so give it here and I can show you, if you really want to know.” The bag was surrendered to its rightful owner, who sat back down where he had previously been lounging and motioned for the other two to follow suit. Simmons swung his legs back and forth, splashing the water with his toes every now and then.  
“Okay, now this,” he pointed at a graph, “is the change and growth of the plants in this area over the last seven months.” He pulled out another one,  
“This is the same thing but of the local fish in the bay area, we have records of the species from years ago and I chose to come here to update that information.” He handed the graphs over to Sister who passed it on to Grif who asked,  
“You actually chose to come here?”  
“Well, yeah!” Simmons looked confused at the question, “I get that it’s super far away from anywhere and there’s a permanent population of like 200 people when people aren’t here for tourist season, but I kind of like the seclusion.” Simmons started to get that far away look in his eyes again, lost in thought almost,  
“Plus it’s beautiful here, all year-round! And the animals are so unique, I’m wondering where some of them went. Something about this place just… caught my attention.” Either because she was completely oblivious of the atmosphere or perfectly aware, Sister stood up and stretched,  
“The pictures are real pretty, grey guy, but I’d rather see the real deal,” she patted her brother on the back and began to walk away. “Have fun on the rest of your date, I’m going to find a party!”  
“It’s barely 1:00 in the afternoon good luck finding a fucking party! Ugh, just don’t do anything too stupid… and we don’t need stupid souvenirs or pets to take home!” Grif called after her the same time Simmons croaked out a, “This isn’t a date!” Without turning around Sister raised her arm and waved goodbye.  
Grif turned to face red-faced human and carefully handed him the papers back, “Ignore her.” There was a pause while Simmons placed the folder full of research back into his bag, “You want company walking back to your place? I have a feeling I’ll see some familiar faces there.”  
Simmons looked around and up at the sky and finally at his watch, seeing that it was indeed almost 1 he figured grabbing some lunch at home wasn’t a terrible idea, especially with how crowded town was. He nodded and offered his hand to aid the heavier man in standing up, only to be pulled down by him instead. There was a super awkward moment (for Simmons) that very much mirrored their first meeting, of the red-head laid out on top of the tanner man. Only minus the bike, and this time Grif was laughing. Simmons was flustered and standing up quickly,  
“Wow, you’re so lazy that you can’t even be bothered to stand up even with help!” He was brushing himself off and straightening up his shirt.  
“Shut your pie-hole, I wish I could achieve that amount of laziness,” Grif held out his hand and after having it swatted away he stood up on his own. The pair started their way off the dock and towards town. Simmons hesitated when he saw it was busy with the lunch rush, Grif noticed his companion slowing down.  
“You know any shortcuts or scenic routes? We only dock around here once a year so I’d like to see more than the inside of shops,” he threw Simmons a smile. A wave of relief rushed over Simmons at these words and his relief was obvious, a huge grin made its way onto his face and he nodded and started walking faster and veering to the right of town.  
There, just past the empty beach and in what looked like the backyard of a restaurant was a small almost hidden dirt pathway leading into woods. Grif raised his eyebrows and looked at Simmons who was already on the trail and looking back waiting on Grif. They seemed to have an argument just looking at each other until finally Grif sighed,  
“To grandma’s house we go. Or to senile shotgun-crazy grandpa’s I guess.” After a while of Simmons excitedly talking about his research (this time Grif really didn’t understand a bit of what he was saying), Simmons stopped Grif and made him wait while he disappeared behind a rock to the right. After a moment, there was a call to follow Simmons, Grif turned the corner behind the rock and found himself in a tunnel. He made his way to the end and stopped at a rush of water, there was a way to his left from under the water, he made sure not to get wet. When the sun hit his face again he took a sudden intake of breath; Grif had seen many beautiful places underwater but the sight before him was something new.  
It was a hidden cove, something you’d only see in movies or imagine in books. It was the full package: waterfalls, colorful flowers, birds flying around and fish swimming in the clearest water he’d ever seen. To top it off, there was Simmons smiling brightly, eyes sparkling, and bathed in sunlight. He was nearly speechless,  
“It’s-”  
“Paradise? Yeah and that’s the only way to get here, unless you can hold your breath for like 5 minutes without brain damage. It’s connected to the ocean through a tunnel under the waterfall, so I wouldn’t recommend drinking the water.” Grif took several more steps towards the water, careful not to get too close, still soaking in the pure radiance of the cove.  
“I found it the first week I was here. I was wandering around the beach when it started to storm and I took cover in the forest. I lost my way and hid in the cave, I got curious and wandered here. It was still storming at the time so it wasn’t much to look at and I went back to shelter. Once I heard the rain stop I came back in here and, well, I felt like you probably do now: astounded and awestruck and content and million other things. But let me tell you, it’s way better right after a storm.” Grif had been just looking at Simmons, who finally turned his attention to Grif. The two just sort of looked at each other for a moment before Simmons got flustered and shifted away.  
“We’d better get going home, I promised Sarge we, er, I’d be back by now,” it was an obvious lie but Simmons didn’t like the way this guy looked at him and gave him butterflies, so his fight or flight instincts kicked in and decided flight was the best course of action.  
“Maybe…we can come back here later? I-if you don’t have to get back to your cruise by then,” Simmons didn’t look back or wait for an answer as he hurried out of the cove, but he heard footsteps behind him.  
“We’re actually really close to Sarge’s. I kind of wonder if he knows about this place, and keeps it secret.” Joking, Grif replied,  
“Maybe the guy built it! He seems the type to be capable of doing something impossible like that.” At that Simmons laughed,  
“You know, I think you might just be on to something there,” this continued on until they reached the point where they could hear the various yelling of Sarge, Caboose, some barking from Freckles and a few voices Grif didn’t recognize but Simmons groaned at. They exited the trees to the side of Sarge’s front door and they walked around the house. Simmons never thought he’d see a rainbow the same way after the myriad of colors presented before him.  
He saw some of the usual colors like pink, red, and brown and many new ones like purple, blue, a lighter blue, a turquoise blue; Simmons supposed with the addition of his maroon and Grif’s orange they had a nice red and blue combination thing going.  
A giggling kid in aqua ran in front of the pair, followed by a fumbling man in purple and a laughing man in pink.  
“Slow down you two, I’m starting to chafe and as much as I like lotion-” Simmons tuned out the rest and rolled his eyes as he kept walking. The two lighter blue-wearing guests were sat in the gazebo with Sarge, all of whom turned to look at the newcomers. Surprisingly it was Grif who spoke up first, aimed at the two in blue. He gave a little wave,  
“Hiya boss, and…boss. I knew Caboose would be here, but what’s your business here? Unless Caboose somehow dragged you here.” The aqua-clad woman with startlingly red hair (brighter and redder than Simmons’ own) laughed while the light blue guy crossed his arms and scowled. A light, smug voice oozed from the woman’s mouth,  
“A certain someone tricked him into being Caboose’s escort and Tex just laughed and abandoned him when he tried to get out of it. Luckily, we have business here anyway so I came along.”  
At this news, Simmons’ confusion at the new guests only grew. Why was it that Sarge seemed to have connections with all these people that knew each other that Simmons had never heard a word about before? He had thought that after more than half a year, he was in the loop! He even had a line of custom made maroon red t-shirts, courtesy of Donut. Granted those had been given to him about three weeks in: one week for Donut to get to know him, one week for Donut to decide what shade of red was right for him, and the final week to make the clothes. Donut liked to consider himself a productive and efficient guy.  
“Oh? What business?” Grif’s question made the scowling man’s expression fall to one that looked for avoidance. This time Sarge spoke up in a gruff voice,  
“They’re just looking to reconnect with an old friend and maybe expand their horizons a little bit. Just means if this goes well,” he looked pointedly at the two, “we’ll be seeing these blues a lot more often.” There was a groan from Grif, probably at the prospect of being involved with Sarge any longer. But, aside from finally understanding who the ‘blues’ were to their ‘reds,’ Simmons became suddenly confused about another subject.  
“Wait, does that mean you guys actually live nearby? I thought you were a part of a cruise tour group?” Simmons looked around the gazebo. There was a beat of silence amongst them, filled with background noise of barking and yelling and laughing before the light blue man spoke up,  
“For us it’s also something of a…company retreat. As for living around here, yeah. You could say that, and if I were to sound less vague I would say we live about a 10 hour full-speed ahead boat ride from another island.”  
Satisfied with this answer, Simmons picked up the bag he set down upon arrival and headed toward the house. Once he was out of earshot, Grif took a seat right next to Carolina.  
“I know this is probably above my paygrade, but I get the feeling I’m going to be very involved in this and I would prefer to be in the know. So what exactly is happening here?”  
“We need more allies on land. We have…some as of right now, but Sarge has particular aspects that would make him a strong business partner.” There was a scoff from Sarge,  
“Way to make it sound terrible! The least I should expect from you, but I still haven’t decided. The last time I hung around your type, well it was enough to keep me away for a few decades.” He glanced accusingly around the group, to which Grif stood up to allow them to continue their discussion,  
“You guys can fill me in later.” He started toward the sliding door Simmons had disappeared into. Grif knew they would get a lot more done without him interrupting or trying to keep up. Not to mention the prospect of not only food, but stealing Sarge’s food called to him in a way that he just couldn’t resist.  
He none too gently slammed the door open and shut before Simmons could even look up from the cheese he was grilling. Next thing he knew, the larger man was raiding the refrigerator, grabbing anything in sight, and setting it on the counter.  
“I had no idea you loved ham, peanut butter, mayonnaise, and pepper jack cheese sandwiches. But I guess you love any combination as long as it gets into your gullet,” the words were harsh but had a very light tone to them. The only reply he got was a muffled and food-spewing mesh of nonsense. Simmons scoffed and scrunched his face in disgust,  
“That’s disgusting, please if God is merciful I will never have to see or hear that ever again.” Simmons heard a gulp as Grif swallowed his mouthful. He looked over and saw Grif with his arm outstretched offering a spoonful of marshmallow crème,  
“You wan’ some?” The red-head shook his head and motioned toward the pan he was currently grilling on.  
“I’m good,” Grif shrugged his shoulders and turned back to his pile and began building what he would later describe as ‘the ultimate sandwich extravaganza’ meanwhile Simmons flipped his own but continued speaking without looking up.  
“You seem to know a lot of people that know my host. Where…what exactly is it that you do? You can’t be older than me, did you ever go to school? I don’t mean to come off suspicious, but well…I kind of am, you know?” Simmons turned around to find the kitchen spotless, all of the food put away and Grif sitting on the table holding a plate with a gigantic sandwich in his lap. Wide eyed, he looked almost guilty,  
“No, that makes sense,” he took a bite then set down the plate and hopped off of the table. “I’m a shifty guy, I’d be suspicious of me too. The truth is-” he looked at Simmons’ pan, “that your food is burning.”  
“Oh shit!” Simmons quickly grabbed what used to be his grilled cheese sandwich and dropped it in the sink. He turned on the water and the food made a sizzling sound and the smoke stopped. He lifted his hand to cover his eyes,  
“God…dammit. And I’m assuming you didn’t leave anything left.” He took off his glasses and began cleaning them.  
“Soooo, I guess that means you’re free to grab lunch?” Simmons blushed and looked up unbelieving,  
“You just made a fucking tower, and you’re not even going to eat it?! You’re just going to waste Sarge’s food like that?” Grif only grinned and picked up the plate and walked to the door, but before going through he turned around and motioned for Simmons to follow. Confused, he did just that, trailing a few feet behind Grif who called out to the now only reds residing in the gazebo,  
“Hey losers! Who’s hungry?” He lifted the towering, now swaying, sandwich a little bit, trudging onward. “As a thank you for welcoming us to your home, I made you all lunch, or lunch-dinner. Linner!” He set the plate down on the table in front of Sarge and Donut as the purple guy sat down with the kid on his lap. The man in red eyed the food suspiciously before picking up the top slice of bread and licking it.  
“Son, if this ain’t the worst tasting thing I have ever eaten then my taste buds have truly gone sour, and believe me they haven’t.” Grif grunted, clearly not too offended before he turned right back around before he stopped because Donut spoke up,  
“You can always tell quality of something by giving it a good licking.” Grif froze but recovered quickly and got to Simmons by the time he said,  
“God dammit, Donut. Why do you always have to make things weird?!” Ignoring Simmons, Grif yelled back at the seated group,  
“We’re going for lunch cause all your food is crappy!”  
“We are?” Simmons quietly questioned before being shushed by Grif who confirmed that yes they were. The voice of Donut rang out as they basically jogged down the road,  
“Have a good date guys!!” Pressure immediately weighed on Simmons’ chest,  
“It’s not a-” he started to call back but was interrupted by Grif shutting him down,  
“Yes it is.” The pressure got suddenly heavier and Simmons nearly choked. Slowing down, both physically and mentally, the only reply he was able to give was,  
“Oh.”  
\-------------------------------------------------------------------  
Shit, he had totally freaked the guy out. He hadn’t spoken for a near ten minutes walking to the city. He had been hoping to be more secluded at Sarge’s place…he didn’t know what to expect honestly because of course Sarge would be there. He just hadn’t expected to see Doc and Junior and that pink ‘Donut’ guy too. He really didn’t expect to see Church and Carolina.  
It all came down to one thing: calm and cool Grif was nervous and anxious…about asking someone on a date. So he kind of word vomited and sped ahead to basically kidnapping the guy and taking him on a date immediately. He knew he’d have more chances to ask him out, but he almost couldn’t wait.  
“Where’s a good place to eat, then?” He had to break the silence, it had been killing him, “You’ve seen me! I’ll chow down anything so it’s on you.” Simmons looked like a deer in the headlights, Grif almost thought that he was going to sprint away right then and there.  
“What? Oh, um- there’s this taco shack I like to stop by sometimes? No, you probably wanted like a sit-down place or something? I mean, it is a date,” Grif couldn’t help but stare at the man walking alongside him and smile. His ramblings would seem annoying to anyone else, but Grif for some reason found them …endearing. But imagining a shabby little taco shack he replied,  
“Actually, that sounds perfect. Lead the way.” Simmons gave him a look, but smiled and straightened out his back before trudging forward.  
Upon arrival, the man in orange’s eyes basically lit up. He nearly sprinted (the only time he’ll ever move quickly) towards the shack while Simmons sauntered slowly over. Simmons walked up by the time the guy behind the counter was finished placing Gif’s order of one of everything on the menu. The guy called out to Simmons who replied,  
“He’s with me. Yeah I know Louie, he’s kind of a fatty,” he looked over at Grif with a smile. He ordered his own regular before realizing he had zero money on him. He looked to his date who, to his surprise, pulled a zip-lock bag of cash from his trunks. Grif laughed internally, he must look so sketchy to outsiders.  
Aside from many, many strange looks to which Simmons was not unfamiliar, but still uncomfortable with, the date was rather nice. Grif was somewhat terrified that someone might see him or think he was a drug dealer from the look of that money bag. But he thought Simmons’ nerdy company would drive away anyone thinking he was a drug dealer, and the shack was out of the way enough of the town that he was sure he could sit around and laugh without anyone recognizing him.  
After Simmons finished his own food, Grif was only about halfway through so Simmons began sneaking food until Grif finally gave in and shared what was left. But,  
“…only because I’m a motherfucking gentleman!”  
Simmons gave a small smile as he reached across the table. Grif rolled his eyes and brought his food and chair around to sit closer to his date and make his commute to food easier.  
Once the plates were pitifully empty they stood up, Grif was complaining about still being hungry and Simmons was more than grateful when Louie stopped over and threw two pieces of gum at them, joking about knowing he wouldn’t want to be that close to someone that had just eaten his food, then turned to leave with a wink to his regular customer.  
Unfortunately with this distraction, Simmons was unable to move fast enough when Grif grabbed both pieces of spearmint. Gaping open-mouthed Simmons watched the other pop the first piece into his mouth and raise his eyebrows while waving the still wrapped other piece in front of his face. But he pulled it out of reach when Simmons tried to grab for it.  
Simmons held out his hand for the piece, trying and failing to hide a slightly annoyed but still overwhelming smile. His faux-annoyed and mad face fell when Grif quickly unwrapped the piece and stuck the tip of it between his lips  
“You dick,” Simmons replied before Grif tapped the piece lightly, silently telling him exactly how he could get the gum.  
‘He’s out of his freaking mind,’ was Simmons’ first thought, his second was to look around to make sure no one was seeing this ridiculous display.  
Luckily Grif’s eating habits seemed to drive everyone from them and Louie was no longer at the front of his shack. Probably doing work in the back, Simmons assumed. He looked back to his date.  
Grif sucked in a tiny bit more of the gum, he wasn’t going to give Simmons much more time. Simmons sucked in a breath and moved his head forward, just as he was about to put his mouth around the gum piece and bit it away from the fiend he pulled it all into his mouth and, smirking, chewed quickly.  
Unfortunately, Simmons had too much momentum and not enough space to move back before Grif rushed forward and crashed their lips together.  
It was quick and Simmons recovered enough to move back, breaking it off.  
“You tricked me,” Simmons licked his lips and tasted a bit of the mint. Seeing this Grif smirked,  
“You know, if you try again you might still get it. No tricks, I promise!” Not one to pass up an opportunity Simmons surged forward ready to prove something to this guy, he didn’t even think to look around himself.  
Hands rested on Simmons’ waist while his own reached up to his date’s face as they swapped spit and the gum finally ended up in the red-head’s mouth. It was slightly chewed out but still had plenty of mint to go. He had almost forgotten the point of the kiss-mission, too wrapped up in the slick lips and feel of stubble until his partner this time was the one to move back and let go of his sides.  
Dazed and slightly kiss-struck (it had been a while, okay? And this guy was damn good), Simmons rubbed his mouth,  
“If I get marks from your stupid stubble, I swear to God.” The threat was light-hearted and an easy complaint to write off, as he was smiling too hard.  
“Remind me to ask the guy where he got that gum, I barely smelled your horrible burrito-breath,” Grif held out his hand and turned to walk out of the eating area.  
“Asshole,” Simmons took the outstretched hand and began to walk but Grif suddenly froze. Simmons looked to where his gaze was fixated and saw a dark guy in a turquoise that was bright in the sun, Simmons recognized him as one of the guys that was with Grif the day before…Tucker. Next to him was a guy Simmons had seen around the island, he had heard the guy had just come out of the hospital or something.  
‘These guys sure make fast friends,’ Simmons thought before Grif gave his hand a tight squeeze before letting it go and started toward the pair.  
The closer they got Simmons noticed that the other two were walking closely together and only when he and Grif stopped in front of them did he notice that the two were holding hands in an almost secretive and private way. He looked away and instead focused his eyes on Grif who had crossed his arms in front of his chest.  
“You two are looking cozy,” Grif nodded his head toward their intertwined hands.  
The blonde blushed and let go of Tucker’s hand, pulling it to himself and straightening himself up before Tucker to grab it again. Tucker rolled his eyes but the obvious endearment in them anytime they settled on the blonde revealed the truth.  
“Grif, buddy, you got no idea! He can come back, we can go back. Like together, like before!” Grif smiled widely and high-fived Tucker, but there was a second of hesitation when the shorter man had said ‘like before.’  
“There’s going to be a lot to sort out, but that’s a conversation for later,” the blonde spoke up, side-eyeing Simmons. “Simmons, right? I remember you from the coffee shop.”  
That’s where he knew the guy from! That little café that never has people in it. He loved that place. He hadn’t been able to go in for a while thanks to Sarge and all the crazy work he’s making Simmons do. Donut sure as hell wasn’t going to build the shed right.  
“Oh, um- yeah! I’m sorry, I never got your name,” he trailed off. Oh God, this guy had a super intimidating aura about him. He supposed he had to act a lot friendlier while working, but holy shit it seemed like this guy thought Simmons was an enemy. Grif answered instead of the grey-eyed cryptic man,  
“That’s Wash, he left the, uh, company a while back after a big fight. Wash, this is my date. Tucker was probably going to take you to his house-”  
“Not my house,”  
“His host, Sarge’s house to see Caboose,” Wash noticeably relaxed at the mention of the man-child obsessed with Sarge’s dog. He also seemed to recognize the name of his host as well, but he supposed that was because of the business.  
“Which, you’re going the wrong way if you are,” Simmons pointed out. “We can walk with you if you need directions?”  
The couple glanced at each other then turned to Simmons and nodded. They started toward town, Simmons wasn’t ready to show other new people his secret route. He couldn’t help but wonder what kind of people and situation he had gotten himself in the middle of.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long-ass wait, I got a good ole case of the writer's block  
> oh my god I sound like an old person  
> hopefully I'll be able to get over this and be able to write alllllllll summer


	5. Missed Chances

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sarge tells a little backstory

Tucker was freaking out internally.

He was fucking ecstatic for Grif, as much as Grif hated too much attention, Tucker had seen the way he and the human were standing so close to one another. The obvious kiss he had seen in the distance helped confirm how Grif’s day was going too.

Lagging behind the other two, Tucker re-grabbed Wash’s hand and followed. He frowned, Wash’s old paranoia seemed to have returned. It was weird to have seen him so vulnerable and trusting of Tucker only a few hours before. He stayed lost in these thoughts until he was nudged by Wash and upon looking around his surroundings, he found they were just a few houses from their destination. 

“You ready to see Caboose? Er, I guess I mean are you ready to see him again and know who he is?” Wash smiled and opened his mouth to answer but he heard something as they got nearer to the house that made him slow down.

“Oh yeah,” he heard Grif say guiltily. “I might have forgotten to mention that… Doc’s-here-and-he-sort-of-brought-Junior.” He said the last bit as fast as he could.

Tucker hesitated, he wasn’t sure he wanted his son to see Wash so soon. He had been too young to really understand why Wash was suddenly gone, and Tucker had had a really hard time trying to explain that they’d never see him again. Especially with what little communication skills they had developed between them, not to mention he had barely turned 3 at the time. 

He had no idea how Junior would react, nor did he know how Wash would react to how much he had changed, let alone what Junior looked like now out of his skin. Hell, Tucker was still trying to wrap his mind around the adorable, beautiful kid he’d seen up close earlier that day.

But it was too late, Wash was rushing forward, tugging a jelly-legged Tucker behind him. They jogged, nearly ran, toward Doc and another’s voices calling out Junior’s name and the sounds of laughing running around the house toward them. 

Rounding the corner to the backyard they saw him, and Wash dropped his hand as he fell on his knees. They were only a few feet away and Junior had stopped laughing and instead was looking back and forth between Wash and Tucker. Meanwhile the entire yard had gone mostly silent but for some barking and Tucker heard Doc say unbelievably,

“Holy Shit.”

None of this, however, deterred Junior as he walked right up to the pair, eyes never leaving Wash. He stopped right in front of them,

“…Dad?” Holy God, even his voice was perfect. He wondered if they could try to keep his selkie skin off when they went back into the water.

“Dad, is this…I know him,” Junior began touching Wash’s face, tracing the light scars littered here and there alongside the freckles. 

Tucker glanced at Wash who still hadn’t said a word and was looking at Junior like he wanted to memorize every inch. Tucker could relate.

“Um, it’s Wash- Washington- David. He was gone for a while but he’s back.” Tucker saw Wash’s face completely brighten in a huge smile and he picked up Junior.

“That’s right, lil’ pup! I’m back for good!” Junior laughed as Wash spun him around and lifted him in the air. Tucker snapped out of the daze he was in, this was almost too much- he had to be dreaming, he would wake up any minute now to an empty bed and an aching heart.

…Holy crap he got sappy over the years.

He reached over and took Junior from Wash and held his son in human form for the first time. This both freed Wash from Junior to turn his attention to the oncoming Doc who no doubt was about to play a game of 20 questions, as well as it finally gave Tucker a chance to get a real up-close look at his son.

His eyes were a beautiful dark brown that shined and had flecks of gold he saw when the sun hit them just right. His hair was short and soft and curly as hell, and Tucker loved running his hand through it as he held him. Thinking back to Junior’s voice, he wondered how he learned how to speak. Did Doc teach him or was this what he was saying when all he heard were barks? 

But the most noticeable part that Tucker couldn’t believe he could ever have missed were some of the light, thin, turquoise marks, similar to the color of Tucker and his tail, running slightly up his neck from under his shirt. Tucker felt at his own colored marks running up his back from after he had Junior and smiled. He loved his son so much and seeing him like this, he felt even closer and finally felt the connection between them finally click all the way.

Junior whined a little bit, indicating that he wanted down. Tucker smiled and obliged, Junior shooting off toward Caboose and Freckles and the guy wearing pink that had been with Doc earlier, and Tucker turned his attention to Doc’s interrogation.

“-and you asked me if I knew how to use protection,” Tucker had obviously tuned into the best part of this conversation.

“Yeah, I had to make sure! I mean, we didn’t want Tucker getting pregnant again!”

That’s when Tucker decided to pitch in, “Doc, I’m pretty sure that was a one-time only special occasion. How did you guys get to this anyway?”

“Wanted to make sure it was really Wash, and not a brainwashed, uh, Wash.”

Tucker smiled and clasped his hand on Doc’s back, “If he turns out to be a sleeper spy, you’ll be the first to know.” In an unamused voice Wash responded,

“Doc, I’m not brainwashed,” his voice turned lighter as he rubbed a spot on his head, “brain damaged maybe but the doctors let me leave the hospital so my hopes are high.”

A loud splashing sound made all three men raise snap their heads in the direction of the beach with a deer in the headlights look. Praying to God it was the dog, but the barking coming from the porch squashed that. 

There, standing knee-deep in the water, was the pink guy lightly splashing at Junior who was also in the water but much closer to the shore and giggling. There was nothing any of them could do, by the time they got over to the pair, without getting into the water, Junior would have turned and revealed everything. 

But that’s not how it went down, Tucker called out to his son while sprinting toward him, ready to sweep him out of the water and hide his tail. But nothing happened. Junior, still smiling, walked out of the waves and onto the sand, legs intact, and no sign of a tail in sight. 

Doc and Wash were quick to catch up behind him. None of them could pick up Junior with his legs still so wet. Tucker went through a range of emotions as his son looked up at him and called out while the pink guy asked what was wrong. 

Tucker’s heart was in his stomach as he realized what this meant, he felt like he had just taken two step forwards and a step back in his connection with Junior. Still closer than before but there was still distance. 

He took in a shaky breath and shook his head, smiling at his son. He picked up a towel nearby and wrapped it around Junior’s legs as he picked him up. 

“I’m so sorry, I didn’t know he wasn’t allowed in the water! I thought for sure he knew how to swim!” Doc was reassuring the guy, Donut, he thought he heard Doc say just then. Finding his voice Tucker said,  
“No, no, it’s alright. He knows how to swim it’s just, this is his first time in the ocean and I’m a bit overbearing.”

Tucker glanced at Wash who had a worried look on his face but he ignored it. Junior was tiredly running his finger along the turquoise marks on his neck. He propped him up a little and let him lay his head down on his shoulder.

Doc had a look in his eyes as he watched Donut rattle on and Tucker smiled, still ignoring Wash’s worried expression from the corner of his eye. He thought a break was definitely in order. It sounded like even Caboose and the dog needed a rest. Tucker started toward the gazebo, where Sarge had stood up and was heading in their direction. 

“Donut!” Sarge’s gruff voice called out.

“Yessir?” Donut immediately diverted his attention from Doc to the older man. 

“I’m sure you can make it up to Tucker by takin Junior in to the couch for a nap and reading him a story? Doc here can join ya and help out with some a’ your voices,” Sarge looked at Tucker pointedly which kind of both worried and terrified him. Junior was gently transferred to Donut.

“Oh, an’ check in on Simmons, despite bein a red I don’t like that Grif.”

“Aww, but sir! I don’t wanna disturb those two!” Donut protested, but headed inside nonetheless Doc following close behind. 

“Now why don’t the two a’ you sit down?” Sarge gestured to an unlit fire pit and a few chairs around it. Once they were settled Wash spoke,

“What’s all this about?” Sarge sighed,

“Well, I figured the two of you would want to know a few things seein as you’ll be pretty deeply involved.”

“Involved in what?”

“There’s been a new assignment, a new project. Project Ariel, they think they’re so funny. Long story short, looks like you guys will be coming topside a lot more.”

This came as a huge surprise to Tucker, they had been so secure and adamant about never coming onto land outside of the one day. But he wondered, why them? Why Sarge?  
Sarge signed, “Look, kids, as of very recently I am one of maybe five people left on the island that still knows of your…type.”

Both Tucker and Wash made faces at each other and gaped. That didn’t make any sense, Tucker knew first hand that there was a network of humans on the island. They were working with them, they help set today up…right? 

Now that he thought about it, Church had only mentioned talking to the Mayor, who he knew was one of the people who knew. But Church had also said something about talking with everyone else on the phone. Tucker figured it was just because of unavailability…but that wouldn’t make sense. Normally they would go in person to see a human for the annual day.

“What…?”

“Well really it’s a long story, I’m honestly surprised they came to me today. I haven’t been in contact with you for a…very long time. But desperate times, obviously a lot of the oldies have died off, a lot of the others have been leaving thanks to tourists and I’m afraid it’ll just be me left soon enough. Especially when that bag of bones Mayor is one sneeze away from turning completely into dust,” Tucker gave a nervous chuckle. This was not good, but the higher-ups seemed to have a plan. 

“But why are we involved in this?” Wash seemed to be more composed than Tucker. He had always been better at keeping his cool in things like this.

“Don’t think I haven’t been keeping an eye on you, Washington. I suspected what you were the minute I found you dried up on the beach and you probably ain’t going to just disappear from up here. And from what I hear you two are going to be inseparable, so you’ll be together in this.”

Wash made a confused noise.

Tucker had a question of his own, “Alright, but why are you involved? How have we never heard of or from you before, but you seem to know an awful lot about us?”

They heard the sliding door slam open and looked back to see Grif and Simmons emerging form the back door. Simmons was storming in their direction with a laughing Grif following while Donut’s laughter and playful voice rang through the yard. 

“No! Simmons look! I’m sorry! I just thought you needed a cool down!” He was giggling the whole time he spoke. Doc stopped Donut from continuing outside and back into the house to continue reading to Junior.

Simmons reached the three, completely red faced, hair and shirt soaked and upon further instruction Grif was looking kinda wet too.

“Sarge, keep Donut out of my room!” Simmons’ voice cracked the higher pitched it got. Sarge cracked a smile,

“Why, Simmons! Always stay on your toes! You let Donut sneak attack and shoot you! Be glad it wasn’t sea water! That would have stung the eyes! I expected better, you could have at least used Grif as a human shield.”

Simmons sputtered but straightened up and only with slight malice he forced out a, “Sir, it’ll never happen again, sir!” 

He then glanced around at the three of them and his expression relaxed into a more curious one.

“What’s going on out here?”

Tucker nervously flicked his eyes at Grif who seemed to understand the tension that now filled the area. But to their surprise Sarge told Simmons to take a seat, and for Grif to sit on the ground or make his own seat (he ended up sitting in between Tucker and Simmons which resulted in being pelted by twigs at intervals by Sarge). 

“I was just about to tell the boys here how I know their boss,” Sarge sighed. “It’s been a while since I’ve told anyone about this, and I figure it’s long enough. It all started when I moved here 30-odd years ago,”

It had been a beautiful day, like every other day on the island. Despite having only been drafted for five years, he had seen enough hell to last a lifetime. Having been an army brat, he lived and breathed the stuff growing up, but when his entire platoon was killed… The cafeteria breakdown was what did it, although he did a bang up job trying to cover it up and he was so close. He had been something of a loose cannon and his new CO had had it out for him, but he acted all nice like he was the one Sarge had to trust in any situation. 

They sent him here, this nice relaxing remoted island with little military presence, which Sarge was now in charge of. He wouldn’t have to do anything. But oh-ho, to hell if he let that stop him. He would walk the perimeter of the island every night and every morning. He made his few privates run drills every day. It got to the point where everyone quit and flash forward into the future, Donut was the only one he had left.

Donut had been born on the island, but his mother died when he was 15 and Sarge became a father-figure. Donut joined as his newest private at 18 when the last two finally had enough of Sarge and transferred. That had been 4 years ago.

Anyway, before all that Sarge had been a relatively young and strapping man basically alone on the island. He had been fairly sought after. 

“Yeah right! I bet you had grey hair when you were born,” Grif interrupted. Simmons lightly smacked his arm while Tucker snickered.

“Maybe I did, you insubordinate! I was still twenty times better lookin’ than you and your ugly mug!” That shut up Grif’s laughing, but only made Tucker laugh harder.

“Now where was I? Oh yes, I was handsome as the devil and a heartbreaker! But I did have a lady friend at the time,” Tucker gave a whistle.

BTW I AM AWARE OF THE CHANGE IN POV, BUT ITS BC NOW YOU KNOW SARGE IS TELLING THE STORY

Her name was Julie and she was the daughter of a rich man with a house on the island. She was pretty and young and used to getting anything she wanted. And she had wanted me at the time, so her father threatened to have me dishonorably discharged. I was young and scared and stupid so I believed he would find his ways of doing it. She wasn’t really so bad, anyhow, just a little stuck up and annoying.

During one of my late night perimeter checks, Julie was home with her father for the night, so I finally had time to myself. So I’m circling round a cove, it went from very shallow to very deep quickly so it was normally roped off. It was the perfect place for fishermen to throw nets in, tie the top to a stake ground into the rock and leave overnight to catch plenty of fish. Nowadays, it’s impossible to get to from the land…a uh rockslide or something.

Sarge winked, unnoticed by Simmons.

I was walking along, looking out to make sure no enemy ships were out there watching us, waiting to attack when I heard splashing coming from the cove. Now that wouldn’t have caught my attention ‘cept for the lady’s voice I heard goin’ with it. What was weird was that she wasn’t sayin’ ‘help’ or nothing, just sounded like anxious, angry muttering. 

So I climbed down a little ways and jumped on in ready to yell at a stupid late night teenager out for a swim and save her from drowning in the net with my pocket knife. I swam on over to where I saw a head bobbing in and out of the water and there she was. She saw me before I saw her, and she began cussing at me and telling me that I needed to leave and that she could handle it. 

That was when I knew it, boys. I was in love.

Grif made a retching noise.

So I kinda just laughed at her and dived under to cut her legs free.

Sarge looked pointedly at the group, leaving Simmons confused.

She had an interesting and very noticeable birth mark covering her legs, it caught me very off-guard at first but I had gone under for a reason and I cut her free. I wanted to ask her about it when I got my breath back, but the minute I cut the ropes she swam off. I couldn’t follow her cause she was damn fast, and my clothes were weighing me down. So I swam back to a small patch of sand at the base of the cove and found my way back up and went home. 

I was sure it was a dream for a bit that night, but my clothes and the cold I had the next morning told me it was real. I decided to look for her, but no one in town had seen her when I described her face. So I figured I’d keep my eyes toward the water.

It took a week or two but I was finally able to catch sight of her real early one morning close by here actually, an’ this time I was prepared! Had my trunks on and everything, so I dove in and swam out to her and she didn’t swim away this time, just watched me while I made my way over. 

Being incredibly charming and smooth, I said, “So, come here often?”

Sarge looked so proud of himself, none of the men sitting in the circle had the heart to tell Sarge otherwise.

I still couldn’t get a great look at her, but while she stayed stone-faced, I know she was swooning. I could see it in her eyes. She grabbed me by the hand and told me to take a huge breath and dove under the water with me. She was a strong swimmer, but luckily so was I, and she took me to an underwater opening. 

I thought my lungs would explode by the time we surfaced. She threw me onto the little beach there and waited until I caught my breath. When I finally did and looked at her, she smiled and looked up, which got me to look around. 

Now, boys, I have no idea how she found the place but we were in a tiny heaven and it looked completely closed off from the rest of the island- which explained why I had never seen it before! I thought I’d seen every nook and cranny of land.

Grif and Simmons looked at each other, mouths slightly open and eyebrows raised. But neither dared say a word.

Then she hoisted herself up onto the shore and it took a moment but I had to look away ‘cause I realized she was naked and since I was a gentleman, it wasn’t much but I gave her my shirt. 

Tucker broke into a cheeky grin and spoke, “And it gave you an excuse to go shirtless, right? You smooth fucker.”

Sarge scoffed but grinned.

She was kinda shaky when she stood up so I offered an arm, but she took a breath and straightened up and was fine. Just needed to get her land legs, I s’pose.

Now I won’t bore you on the gritty details of talk between love birds, but we both had plenty of questions and plenty of answers. She had apparently seen me and had been occasionally watching me on my perimeter walks from day one and she got caught in that net on accident. You kids today may call that stalking, but it was really sweet at the time.

Sarge sighed.

She was really beautiful. So anyway we decided to meet up in the cave every other morning. Luckily she showed me a back entrance accessible by land, under a waterfall and through a cave. 

She, uh, preferred the water route. She was a real lover of the sea. 

Only Grif noticed, but Simmons’ hold on the edge of his chair was so tight, his knuckles turned white. 

But, Julie had noticed that my mind was somewhere else, and mind you boys I fully intended to break it off with her when she left. I assumed I was just summer entertainment for her. And I think I was. But she apparently thought me hers until the expiration date. I s’pose that might also explain why so many of my privates left me. Guess they thought I would be punished if I had no subordinates. 

Sarge chuckled.

Shows how little they know. I was fine, I did basically everything anyway and they were just weeding out the weak. 

They must ‘a found somewhere else for their summers cause I never saw them again. It actually makes sense seein’ as the island actually lost a lot of money after…

Sarge suddenly went very rigid and his eyes fixated on one point on the ground.

See, the island was large in the fishing market, hence the giant net from before. But they started goin’ out earlier and earlier, with the demand up so high. 

We were able to see each other a lot more with Julie out of the way, and she had even started staying with me some nights. But she always had to go home for periods of time. I shoulda’ made her stay the night before. What we had was good. She was probably the best thing I’d ever had in my life. 

But obviously I’d been happy for too long. Cause she didn’t show the next day after a storm. I thought I’d made her mad, ‘specially since she would send a message if she wouldn’t be able to make our meeting. 

We had our own special way of sending messages, called it eel-mail, she was a clever one. I sent a few out, but they always came back. 

It wasn’t until the fourth day after she didn’t show up that her brother met me in the haven and told me that she had been caught in a net during one of her early morning swims and mistaken for a fish in the darkness and stabbed.

He told me it was my fault that she died. And he was right. 

Sarge coughed and looked up to see everyone avoiding eye contact, except Wash and Caboose, who solemnly looked back at him. Tucker had his arms crossed in more of a hug than a defensive stance, Grif had his jaw clenched and Simmons was looking over Sarge’s shoulder to the water and the slightly lowering sun.

Anyway, once word got out that the fishermen had killed a woman the industry died. There was no body, but enough testimony by other fishermen on the boat that had cut the net when they heard her voice. They arrested the guy that had done it.

Turns out she was involved in the company that these guys are in now. Although, I can see it has also changed a lot since then. 

“Alright, story time’s over,”

Sarge stood up and looked toward the sun, “Hey boys, shouldn’t you be getting back to your boss? Looks like your time here’s almost up, you don’t stay past sunset still, right?”

Tucker and Grif looked at each other, they knew they had time to spare but it looked like Sarge wanted them gone. He left toward the house, calling Freckles to follow him. Tucker grabbed Caboose and Wash and followed Sarge inside to grab Doc and a still sleepy Junior, leaving the last two to say goodbye privately. 

Once he made sure they were inside the house, Grif turned to the maroon-clad man, but any sort of goodbye he was going to say died on his lips when they were met with another pair. It was short but promised more at a later time. 

“Thank you,” Simmons breathed out. “For today.” He stood up and Grif followed, finally finding his voice again. He glanced over to the porch where the door slid open and Tucker holding a slumped over Junior emerged.

“I don’t know when I’ll be on the island again, but I’ll make sure we see each other again. Until then,” Grif shoved a piece of paper into Simmons’ hand before racing off toward the group of colorful people leaving.

Simmons unfolded it and covered his mouth at the giggle that came out,

Grif’s Zombie Apocalypse Plan  
1\. Grab food  
2\. Grab vehicle  
3\. Grab Simmons  
4\. Go to Alaska

When Grif reached the others, they were all waving goodbye to Donut and Sarge and turned to leave. But then Wash turned back around,

“Hey Sarge! What was her name?”

“…Maria”

Satisfied with the answer, he turned back around and went to intertwine his hand with Tucker’s free one but found an empty space where Tucker had both hands wrapped around his son. Grif fully expected the entire walk to be silent, but Doc spoke up,

“So Donut told me Sarge was in love with a mermaid,” a chorus of sort-of shushed “What?!” rang among them.

“Yeah, wasn’t that the story you all were listening him tell?”

“Yes, but- how did.. did you figure out on your own that she was a mermaid? Or did Donut tell you?”

“Donut told me!” Doc answered Wash defensively. After a few moments of silence, Doc realized everyone’s surprise.

“Oh, he knows! His mom had been one of the legacies that knew, as well as an excellent farmer! You wouldn’t believe the gardening tips he learned from her!”

The silence following this lasted the rest of the walk, leaving everyone to digest this information while Junior slept, Caboose hummed to himself, and Doc thought about all the underwater gardening possibilities.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw sorry for all the weirdness in POV and that all, I’m sort of experimenting and trying to see what I like better for organization and what looks like what I want best.  
> yeah I'm sorry for the long wait for the updates...I get super easily distracted but I promise I am trying!   
> thank you to all y'all who are keeping up! seriously, as a fic reader my heart goes out to you


	6. Don't be so Bitter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here's a little something different that I feel like I promised months ago and took my sweet ass time delivering

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise to God I didn't forget about this, I'm just running low on chapters I've already written to stay ahead of the updates  
> So, enjoy!

Bitters groaned and rolled his eyes for the…like 17th time today. Here he was, stuck watching over the village while _some_ goddamn people got to go topside. The only solace he got was the fact that Andersmith, Palomo, Jenson and Matthews were stuck in Blood Gulch with him.

But now Palomo was ranting to Bitters about how unfair it was. Like Bitters didn’t already fucking know that.

“It feels like they don’t trust us enough! Do you ever think they’re going to let us leg? Or are we gonna be stuck down here until we die?”

“I’m sure they have their reasons! They need the best agents up there,” Jenson chimed in.

“I swear they think we’re completely incompetent!”

Finally Bitters decided he should chime in, “Maybe that’s because we _are_ , or at least more incompetent than others”

“But we’re through basic! I’ve seen combat!!!”

Bitters shook his head, “So have I, dufus! I was there too, remember? I’m just as qualified if not more than you!”

“Like you’d actually go out of your way for anything. I volunteered to go on that trip but you and Captain Grif were threatened to go.”

Bitters promptly told Palomo to go fuck himself, to which Jenson had to stand in between the two to keep Palomo from punching Bitters (which honestly wouldn’t end well for anyone) and Matthews held Bitters back.

It took a minute and a cold look from Andersmith to cool the two down. Luckily Palomo has the attention span of a peanut and could never hold a grudge. So when Palomo started smiling and chatting up again, Bitters just rolled his eyes and shrugged away from Matthews.

Bitters sighed and looked up toward the surface, it looked dark. Darker than it should be at this time of evening. There was a storm rolling in. They would get to be in rain, a summer rain and Bitters’ envy for the officers that got to go topside grew.

_A little over 2 years earlier_

He had heard that the village near the outside of their own empire annually went on land and he was jealous. So little to say he was ecstatic when finding that since that village was basically a giant military base Charon would be adopting them as part of the empire, since, their own army was….beginning to dwindle (not that they would release that information to the public.)

Bitters actually joined the military because of this- the chance to go on land. To join that ‘Blood Gulch’ in annual legging. It wasn’t until basic that he figured out how incompetent they really were. Apparently there had been some shit inside and out, and a lot of power struggles within their small village.

He didn’t like to listen to the gossip Palomo and Jenson got into about the agents and older soldiers. He preferred to mind his own shit and get through not doing the drills as much as possible.

When he figured out he could do that, not actually do any work but still move up in ranks, he took as much advantage on that as he could. He wasn’t lazy, he just didn’t feel the need to exceed the minimum requirement cause he didn’t have to.

Chorus had been slowly sinking in population over the years thanks to mercenaries and its generally terrible government. The whole empire was basically the ‘bad part of town,’ the empire was basically a small city, and their only hope had been adopting other smaller surrounding mer villages. Thank God Chorus still had a good name and reputation or he figured the place would have been ransacked and taken over completely.

If Bitters was being completely honest, if it hand been for hearing about Blood Gulch, he probably would have become one of the criminals ruining the empire. It wasn’t like his life was peachy to begin with. No parents, a brother already disappeared, and only a few friends scattered here and there.

Only the young with nowhere else to go joined the military at this point. Those who lost parents, friends, siblings, and decided to give something to the world rather than take from it. With nothing to lose, the good-hearted, naïve kids were all that was left. Looking around at the young faces of Palomo and Jenson-this is what Bitters thought. He knew he was nothing like them, he wasn’t naïve, or pretended to be carefree. No, he was selfish. He sometimes wished he could laugh the real-life troubles away and forget his past, but despite the mere couple of years between himself and the others the experience and guilt difference felt immense. He had days where he had no problem being silly and joking with the others. But. There were plenty of others where he had to stop himself from snapping at Palomo (God that kid was irritating sometimes) or Matthews and he had no clue how the hell Andersmith could be so stoic and put up with so much shit.

The third week after basic was when he first began really getting to know his teammates. Somehow, for whatever reason, them four had been chosen by a few agents who apparently ‘needed to work on their leadership skills.’ It was what Bitters liked to call the Bullshit Big Brother program. He supposed that it would make sense for their new superiors to barely know what was happening in Chorus. This still didn’t mean Bitters wasn’t still upset with how lightly they took everything.

He and the others were getting along pretty well and he was letting loose a lot more often. He was beginning to feel almost like a family and it was so easy and comfortable. But then Palomo’s guy went on another mission and his boyfriend died and shit was never the same.

After that accident and then Palomo, Agent Grif, and him running into Felix and Locus the family dissipated a bit. Agent Tucker had been allowed on leave for a few weeks and a more trainees were placed under their ‘Captains.’ That’s where Matthews and Volleyball came in, at first Bitters had been pretty reluctant about the new additions, but once Agent Tucker returned everyone sort of clicked into place. Everything became a lot more comfortable again.

_Back to now_

Bitters’ staring up did not go unnoticed, he felt a tap on his shoulder and glanced behind him. If you were to ask Bitters what he thought of the tan-and yellow tailed mer, he probably would have told you that he had no clue why the kid was in the army. He seemed like the kind of kid that would have gone to school and STAYED in school cause he could avoid the criminal life.

The only conclusion Bitters could come to was that something really bad must’ve happened to his family. But even then. Matthews was too…innocent? Naïve? To have truly gone through that kind of trauma.

Everything with that kid was either a mystery or it was way too obvious. Even with his age, Bitters considered him a kid but he had actually recently been told he was the same age as Palomo- a little older in fact. He could be perceptive, so it didn’t really surprise Bitters when his teammate asked him if something was up.

Blocking out Palomo’s talking a few feet away, Bitters nodded and pointed toward the surface, “It- ahh, it’s going to rain…and the others aren’t back yet.”

“So…? They’re not scheduled to come back for a bit, there’s no need to worry for a while,”

Bitters stuttered a bit, the truth was he had been fantasizing about the surface. He’d barely even been above the water ever before and while the water during a storm had a certain feeling to it, he could only imagine what actual raindrops would feel like. Thank God it was only salt water that turns them.

Suddenly Bitters had an idea. A stupid idea that, normally, he would have dismissed before even allowing the thought finish. But after a quick glance around their small group, Bitters smacked Palomo with his tail to shut him up. Everyone quieted down and looked at him,

“Let’s surface.”

There was no semblance of stunned silence, there was barely a pause where they could process the information before the sputtering began. Next were the mile a minute questions and the first time Bitters ever saw Andersmith actually look surprised. For some reason, Bitters felt elated. He felt like doing stupid things against the rules and for the first time in a few years he smiled so hard it hurt when he saw Andersmith’s face.

Matthews had the first actually comprehensible statement, “That’s sooo against the rules, we’d be punished for weeks…months!”

“You said it yourself, Matthews! The big bad guys in charge aren’t due for a bit still! No one is expecting us back at least until the ship gets back too! Look, I can count the amount of times I’ve hit air on one hand, I wouldn’t mind adding a finger,” after looking around at the others he added,

“So, fuck it!”

This time there _was_ a stunned silence, just a pause before the group burst into laughter and everyone agreeing and saying, “Yeah! Fuck it!”

There may have even been a few ‘whoop whoop’-s involved. And in no time the six of them were swimming up.

It was becoming darker out and the cool breeze from the coming storm made Bitters take in a sharp breath. He let out a laugh, he had forgotten how great the air felt. He splashed around a bit before noticing the lack of others around him. He saw the island a ways away, they were out of sight of any beaches.

Andersmith was right there next to Bitters, eyes closed and soaking in the rain and cool humid summer breeze. Palomo and Jenson were next to each other inching closer and closer to the surface. That left Matthews, still about 5 feet beneath the surface just peering up with an extremely cautious and uncertain look on his face.

A beat passed after Palomo and Jenson surfaced and they reveled in the fresh air before Matthews slowly reached a hand up and stuck it out of the water and quickly took it back, looking at his fingers as if making sure they weren’t on fire or suddenly diseased.

It was when Matthews appeared to be completely sure that he wouldn’t explode upon breaching the surface that he finally stuck his head up and sucked in a huge breath. To Bitters’ surprise, Matthews began giggling and splashing slightly in the rain.

Whelp, it was official- Matthews had lost his fucking mind. That was the only explanation for why he was laughing out of his goddamn mind.

But apparently Bitters was the crazy one because it seemed like he was the only one who noticed, or maybe he was just the only one who cared. He moved his tail and splashed Matthews to get his attention,

“What’s your malfunction?” The laughing stopped and was replaced with a confused noise,

“Wha?”

“Laughing. Why?”

“I’ve…never- this is my first- and to think I was always scared,” his speech was breathless and choppy, and he was still giggling a little bit.

Before Bitters could provide…comfort? Reassurance? Mockery? Fuck know what he was about to say. Palomo was there in an instant and began teasing Matthews as if he himself hadn’t just been hesitant to surface a few moments ago. Lightheartedly, like the kind motherfucker he is, Matthews teased back,

“You’re dishing some big talk for someone who _turned down_ an opportunity to leg today.”

Jenson and Vollyball dramatically gasped, smiles wide. But this news genuinely confused Bitters, Palomo had been invited to go on land today? Bitters hadn’t even heard there was an open spot or opportunity.

Palomo sputtered, “I _would have_ if, um, if I hadn’t had to lead you guys at recon out here! I’m entrusted with so much back here while everyone else is on land!”

Everyone of course knew this was bullshit, raised eyebrows all around confirmed that. Not to mention the number of people before Palomo on the list of responsibility for home base, Bitters and Andersmith being two of them.

Now it was Bitters’ time to shine, he took pride in his ability to stir the striped-aqua tailed mer up,

“Wow, _Charles_ , it almost seems like you’re afraid of legging. I bet this is the closest you’ve been to the island! You’re probably too scared to even _see_ land.”

“Nu-uuhh! _You’re_ scared!”

Before the teasing could escalate, a sound coming from the island startled the group and made the red-faced Palomo let out a fairly undignified yelp. The ship was coming back.  Bitters took one last breath of the fresh, salty air and dove down to start the journey back to where those who legged will unload and Agent Carolina will dismiss them for much needed sleep.

“I’m not scared.”

God dammit, Palomo was still on this. They must have seriously hurt his pride and now he wouldn’t stop talking about it.

“Palomo-” Bitter started.

“Let’s go to the island,” everyone stopped and stared at Palomo. “Not to leg! That would be crazy to do without permission! I mean, let’s get up close! We can even go at night! Tonight?”

Bitters and Andersmith both turned away and spoke at the same time,

“Shut the fuck up, Palomo.”

Even Jenson added on, “Y-yeah, don’t you think we’ve done enough for today?”

Everyone save for Palomo and Matthews swam on to greet those returning from land. They both sighed, Palomo out of disappointment and rejection and Matthews out of relief, before following.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that was a chapter, another short one, I'm sorry guys  
> I also wanted to thank all of you guys still reading and you new readers who obviously have been reading through all the older fics on this site (don't worry I been there, I...still do that)  
> And comments always make my day


	7. Returning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wash mentally prepares to go home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Because fuck it, I'm already a month behind and I haven't written anything in months. I need to move past Wash and Tucker. Sorry for the hiatus, I'll figure out a way to make it up  
> Love you guys, comments and messages always appreciated! Even if they are angry critiques and peeps angry for the hiatus  
> ENJOY!

Wash was nervous.

Wow understatement of the century. He was basically returning from the dead and while he had no idea what had changed, he knew it was going to be a struggle to adapt.

He was thinking too far ahead now. He had to focus on the fact that he was about to walk up to dozens of friends and family who thought him dead. He really just didn’t want to deal with the looks and different way they were going to treat him. Things had changed and to him it felt like they hadn’t. It was so unfair.

All of this he realized the moment he remembered everything. He had been thinking up ways to explain to Carolina and everyone, although he supposed there was no need anymore. He wondered if Carolina and those guys had known he was alive this whole time, under careful watch from Sarge. It unnerved him, he thought he could trust those guys again, or again again, whatever. He supposed he’d just have to handle the situation as practically as possible…treat it like a real homecoming and just enjoy himself (if the reactions of his teammates were joyful).

The upside was that he had Tucker no matter what, and could trust _him_. Right? Wash shook his head. Right. And there’s no good thinking any differently.

He hoped.

He had finally convinced Tucker to let him carry Junior for a few minutes, and the excitable kid on his shoulders was greatly decreasing his worry. But the nearer they got within sight of the docks, the more he wanted to run away.

Running away had never really been an option for Wash before and the idea of it, while he was against it, just seemed so tempting.

However, the hand that wasn’t death-gripping the bag of the wiggly child 6-feet above the ground was given a slight squeeze by the man walking alongside him. Wash gave Tucker a reassuring smile but dropped it once Tucker’s attention was diverted to poking fun at Grif and Doc.

Once they were in town Wash’s sight landed on the coffee shop, reminding him that he had been scheduled to work the next morning. His mind wandered to his coworker who, he realized he barely knew, still deserved an explanation, but probably wouldn’t get one.

Then on to his apartment a few blocks away. He didn’t have much to his name. I fact, everything had basically been given to him by the mayor and an anonymous donor thanks to his very unusual circumstances.

People would wander where the amnesiac had disappeared to. Attention to him had died down but that didn’t mean people didn’t still wander into the coffee shop every so often just to keep a watch on him.

OH and his cats!!! Well, not really _his_ , he supposed, but that didn’t mean anyone else would be looking out for them or feeding them or giving them even the slightest bit of shelter.

Now he really dealt on it all, Wash was really just proving what little of a life he had made for himself the past couple of months. Could he really just…leave?

Wash hesitated, which caught Tucker’s hand and pulled him back just a bit. Tucker asked him if something was wrong.

Wash couldn’t answer, yes. No. Everything happened so suddenly and so fast. Wash’s head hurt, just like it did when he had strained himself trying to remember who he was.

He calmly lifted Junior off of his shoulders and set him in Tucker’s arms. Wash’s eyes focused again on Tucker’s face but then he saw what was behind the dark skinned man.

It was too late. He had passed the point of retreat without even noticing. They were there. At the docks. And there was Church, Tex, and Carolina briskly walking right toward them, eyes wide and faces serious.

Wash tried to glance behind them but it seemed no one else had seen him yet.

But fuck if there weren’t tears in Carolina’s eyes. Tucker glanced to see where Wash was looking and stepped out of the way, smirking when he saw. Wash was engulfed in a hug, he went stiff until she let go,

“Wash, I can’t believe you, you’re here! You’re alive! It was, I was so…after Connie I hated to even _think_ of any of us being gone.”

Wash was just completely taken aback. He was speechless. For him some time had passed, the few months without his memory, but besides that, it really hadn’t been a long time since seeing Carolina.

“…Carolina, boss, I-”

Tex spoke up, “Wash, we are so happy you’re alive,” Wash’s stomach upturned. Something was wrong, there was a ‘but,’

“But as you can see, there are going to be some…reactions to your return.”

Wash was hesitant but also extremely happy and relieved for Tex and the way she was treating him. She wasn’t freaking out or anything, she was just treating him like normal…well normal enough for the situation at hand.

Wash straightened up and went into mission mode, “Yes ma’am. What are we going to do about it?”

Tex eyed Wash, obviously considering him and his reaction, “I’m gonna have to ask you to hide your face while we go back,”

Church chimed in, “At least until we announce your return.”

The couple looked at each other having a silent conversation before Church continued, not looking away from Tex.

“We’ll call a meeting when we return to discuss the day and officially bring you back from the dead,” he looked at Tucker, “I expect you’ll stick with him right now and help him avoid people. I recommend you go below deck and just find a place to hide out until everyone is off and then we’ll deal with you guys.”

Somehow Church always managed to have a tone that just irked Wash sometimes, made him feel like Church was pitying or patronizing him.

Memories of Church and some of the shit they said to each other before the incident rant in Wash’s head, and by the look in his eye when they made eye contact, Church was recalling the same thing.

Clenching his teeth Wash replied, “Yes, sir.”

He gave Carolina another hug, having gotten over the initial shock minutes ago, and the 3 turned back to the boat, stealthily followed by Wash, Tucker, and Junior.

Once _on_ the boat, Wash quickly ducked into a room and shut the door tightly behind him while Tucker left to find Doc.

From the look of it, the room had been meant to be a smaller hotel room, possibly for a 1-person trip or for someone who couldn’t afford much on the small yacht. Wash sighed and looked into the mirror, stationed across from the small twin bed.

He supposed he hadn’t really thought about it, but running a hand through his hair he recalled when he dyed it again.

He had been released from the hospital and was wallowing in his own loneliness and confusion. The people at the hospital had been cutting his hair for him every few months and his whole dead was back to his natural mousy brown color.

He recalled that he didn’t remember his hair ever being a different color but he felt the need to dye it. So with the money leant to him and what little he’d earned at the coffee shop that first week, he went to the grocery store and bought some bleach.

It was a little different from what he normally did with it, and bleach had a slightly different coloration that the shells underwater. He ran his hand through the bleached locks as he stared in the mirror.

He laughed a bit, it appeared that he really _had_ changed over the years. It wasn’t just everyone else, he had had a life, a small one, away from them while he was amneased. God this was going to be some hard work.

There was a knock on the door and Wash briefly freaked out, but calmed himself down and lowered his voice a bit,

“Uh, occupied,” his voice cracked. He closed his eyes and shook his head at his own voice.

Wash heard a snicker from outside before a voice rang out,

“Open up, squeaky, its me.”

Wash smiled, that’s right, he wasn’t alone in this. He let Tucker into the room.

“Dude, are you ok? You look kinda pale? You need me to heat you up?” Tucker started approaching Wash and backing him up towards the bed.

Wash let out a flustered yelp when he fell backwards onto the small bed, but when he looked up at Tucker who was holding his chest and laughing.

“While I honest to God would love that right now, I think we have other things to take care of first, we can try some out of water sex some other time,” he winked and sat down on the bed next to Wash’s head.

Wash smiled, maybe this wouldn’t be near as hard as he thought.

The boat lurched when it stopped, causing a lot of people to yelp and fall over (probably still not the best on legs). It was also Tucker’s cue to leave and help Doc in putting Junior’s skin back on, something he was adamant about not missing.

Tucker couldn’t help but snicker along with Wash when he opened the door and a sting of curses in what was no doubt Church’s voice rang out across the boat.

He rushed to the main deck and the edge where he knew Doc and his son were peering over the boat. A few people tried to stop him and ask where he’d been, but Tucker had no time for them.

Carolina began directing people off the boat and into the water, a few of the agents got out first and helped people down to Blood Gulch.

While all the others were exiting the boat, Tucker followed Doc to where they stored his son’s skin. 

In the end it was like slipping on a onesie, oddly easy and it looked super comfortable. He supposed that made sense, as it was his skin. But he wouldn’t be completely back to his normal form until he got into the water so Doc splashed in first and Tucker, after giving Junior a billion kisses and taking twice as many mental pictures, handed Junior down to his babysitter.

It was strange watching him turn back into a seal, it looked so easy and natural, an oddly smooth transition. Once it was done the tiny figure lifted its head out of the water and gave a small, ungraceful bark up towards Tucker before diving down with Doc.

Tucker waved, “I’ll be down soon, buddy!”

Tucker turned to head back to Wash. He could hear the hesitation after he knocked on the door and smiled to himself, his boo was such a dork.

Oh God. HE was such a dork.

Wash opened the door and asked if something was wrong, Tucker must’ve been pulling a face.

“Nothing, nothing!” Tucker grabbed Wash’s hand, “Are you ready to go for a swim for the first time in 3 years?”

“…I…”

“If it helps, I’ll go first so you don’t have to be in the water alone.”

Wash nodded and hummed in agreement. They were met out on the deck by only people remaining on the ship, Carolina and York.

York didn’t look very surprised to see Wash, so Carolina must have filled him in. That definitely didn’t stop him from smiling as widely as possible and grabbing Wash for a hug.

Carolina turned to Tucker,

“Once you two are off, get to the briefing room but don’t go in until you are called in. Church will meet you there and tell you what to do. We’ve got a boat to take care of,”

“And a little alone time, amiright?” Tucker nudged his elbow at them, to which York winked back, Wash groaned, and Carolina lightly (or not so lightly) punched both Tucker and York on the arms.

Tucker tugged Wash toward the railing. The nearer they got to the edge of the ship, the more jello-like his legs became. Wash blankly stared at the water as Tucker kissed his cheek and took off his shirt, he was only pulled from the gaze when he heard a loud splash. He looked down and there he was, in all his aqua-scaled glory.

Tucker was smiling up at Wash and splashing water around, motioning for Wash to follow him into the blue abyss. Wash started hyperventilating, and rubbed at his head wincing at the place he knew the wound to have been.

His death-like grip on the railing loosened and he leaned forward, falling toward the water. He shut his eyes, bracing for impact. He vaguely heard Tucker calling his name before he was surrounded by water.

He tried holding his breath and finding the surface, but something was holding him in place as he thrashed around. When he let out the last of his breath and breathed in again, to his surprise a familiar warmth of water entered his lungs but he could breath. He tried to move his legs but only felt a single appendage below his waist.

He looked down and saw a dark grey tail with yellow accents swishing below him. He was….fine. He felt fine. He smiled, no he beamed at Tucker. He took a few deep breaths.

It was like coming home and changing into the most comfortable pair of sweatpants. Like your eyesight has been slightly blurred for as long as you can remember and suddenly they become sparkling clear. Like the feeling of fresh air after coming from a hot boxed room.

Wash felt light as air, although that might have been because of his newfound buoyancy underwater. He felt elated and he couldn’t stop smiling.

Tucker wiped the concern off of his face in sight of this smiley Wash.

The part-yellow tailed mer took Tucker by the hand and led him to the meeting room.


	8. I'm on a Boat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> And now for something... completely different!

Fuck.

That would be the word of the week at this point. He just _loved_ when he was called out of a mission he was ALMOST FINISHED WITH. Especially when he was then told not to worry about why he was being called away and to just meet up.

He was going to kill Locus. Well, he was going to make him pay somehow, he would kill someone else.

Felix swam up to the yacht and began hefting himself up the ladder, able to use his legs once they formed about halfway up.

“Aaaaalright,” he interrupted whatever conversation had been going on before he showed up, probably unimportant anyway. “So tell my why again you pulled me from my very important mission to, what was it, ‘have a chat’?”

“Quiet.” Locus stared at Felix and hissed under his breath, “this is more serious than you think.”

Felix rolled his eyes, “Oh everything is serious to you, drama queen.”

“I have two words that will finally shut you up,” Felix paled, okay that was Locus’ serious voice. He looked at his partner in expectation, “Agent Washington.”

Felix froze.

“No. Just no. You’re _lying_ to shut me up.”

Felix knew he wasn’t lying, Locus would never joke about their frosty-tipped nemesis.

Locus sighed, understanding more than most Felix’ freak out. He placed a hand on Felix’ shoulder, that being the closest thing to comfort he could afford at that moment. Felix took a breath and shrugged the hand off,

“How?! How could he have lived? WE barely made it out. If we hadn’t had each other to depend on in there, we would have died. How could that ass-hat live?!”

Locus remained silent, assuming Felix was just ranting from rage and letting him run out of steam.

“No, Locus, I’m serious. Where is he? How the ever-loving FUCK is he alive?”

Not allowing the surprise at Felix’ seriousness show on his face Locus answered,

“He was spotted on land a few weeks ago, we-”

“WEEKS? And our informants decided to let us be privy to this _now_?!”

“…The team needed time to approach the subject and come up with an ideal way to deal with the situation,”

Felix failed to notice Locus’ strange and almost cryptic wording. Or possibly he simply ignored it as Locus’ short and interestingly worded communication in the first place.

“How to- _approach_ the subject. We should have taken him the minute we saw him! Or killed him! Or-” Felix stopped. Fuck. What he had found out today on his mission.

“Locus. Locus the Blood Gulch colony had their land day today.”

Locus sighed, he would really have to talk to Hargrove about keeping information from Felix.

“Felix-”

“So this is what Hargrove wanted to talk about?”

“No.”

Felix was genuinely surprised. There’s…something else?

“Well, yes but there’s something else. We are in need of a…change of pace,”

“Yes, so if you have any ideas we are more than happy to listen, Felix.” Both mermen turned swiftly, bracing themselves out of habit, to face their employer.

Felix smiled, thinking to their new information and something he’d been curious about for a while came to his mind.

“Locus, do me a favor and look in the window,” Felix strode closer so he was standing next to Locus facing the window.

“Felix,” Locus growled. “What exactly am I supposed to be looking at here?”

“Imagine you haven’t seen yourself in years, not to mention never seen yourself with legs. How easily would you be able to recognize yourself?”

“I…suppose not very well. But how does this…?”

“We’ve been going about this all wrong! We have perfect disguises without having to change anything but from where we work! We can start working from _land_ , we could even use humans!”

This time Hargrove spoke up, “You forget the terms of our contract: I do not wish for any other humans to gain knowledge of what we are doing here, it could compromise my… exclusivity.”

“That’s why we don’t tell the humans what we are doing. We make an excuse for what we do. Some project or experiment or…scouting? I don’t know, but it’s the perfect cover!”

There was a pause as Felix allowed the other two to consider his genius. The way the other two glanced at each other made Felix realize something.

“How…did you find out about Washington?”

Locus looked almost guilty, he shifted his weight from foot to foot, but never stopped eye contact with his partner.

“Where was he for the last 2 years? Locus?”

“We have been working on a land project for a short while now. Locus here already has a position among the town counsel. Considering your previous compromises, we found it wisest to keep it from you as long as we could,”

He paused occasionally between words as though he were choosing his phrasing carefully. That was just insulting, Felix wasn’t some bomb that would go off at the slightest of news. The betrayal and secrets hurt, yes, but this just made it worse.

He took a breath, not allowing ANY of his thoughts to show through. Not here. Not in front of Hargrove.

 “So now that I know, am I in on this? Was that ever going to be part of the plan?”

Suddenly Hargrove’s phone began ringing, he immediately took it. Before turning around, he gave Locus a look and waved us away.

Once Hargrove was out of earshot, Locus spoke up to a glaring Felix. In a surprisingly soft voice he started,

“Felix,”

“Oh don’t you ‘Felix’ me!” Felix lowered his voice in a mock-Locus tone. “Let me guess, you were trusting in the plan? In Hargrove? You were ‘just following orders,’” Felix scoffed.

 “Call me when you and your boyfriend are done keeping secrets,” Felix turned around and flipped Locus off. He was about to jump off the railing back into the sea when he felt a hand on his shoulder and a low growl. Ouch, he must’ve hit a nerve.

Locus whipped him around, “Because you’ve never kept secrets.”

“Not when it counted,” Felix lowered his voice and hissed, “ _Sam_.”

Felix sighed and removed Locus’ hand from his shoulder, “I thought we were past this, it’s been years. What’s this really about?”

Locus didn’t answer and allowed his hand to go slack, eyes softening.

“…It’s Washington, isn’t it? I thought we were past that too.” Felix felt defeated, he sighed.

“Felix you don’t… I can’t be rid of him. He keeps coming back and I can’t stop trying to compare myself,” Locus sounded frustrated. He was beginning to act out of character, in a way he really only acted with Felix.

Felix liked to think it was because of him. He was beginning to doubt this theory. Locus continued,

“I want so bad for this feeling to leave me, but it just won’t. HE just won’t.”

Felix had a bad feeling about what Locus was saying. His partner had this look in his eyes that just made something in Felix’s stomach drop and twist. His frown deepened.

“Then, we’ll just have to get rid of him. Like actually. And make sure it’s done.” He could use this anger or whatever it was (don’t think too hard on it, Felix) to push Locus to that final step Felix had been ready for for years: finally, being rid of those annoying, lucky, sons of bitches once and for all.

Felix was quiet, he was beginning to be uncomfortable with the subject. Luckily that was when Hargrove decided to round the corner back to the pair.

“Oh,” he stopped walking, “you two are still here. Well, I guess this means one less meeting I have to call.” He paused as he walked closer to the pair. He took a breath,

“Locus,” Hargrove turned to look directly at the tall man, “you will return to the island to keep a look out. You will continue your post as though nothing has changed.”

Locus nodded in affirmation. Felix was about to begin his complaints when Hargrove shut him up.

“Felix YOU,” he paused, “you will be accompanying Locus on land. We will set you up with a cover story for why you are there. We have reason to believe Carolina will be spending a good amount of time on land and we could use some info. It would be best if you two stayed up top until we decide you are done.”

Felix was grinning, no need to hide his excitement at this assignment. No Hargrove, and he got to go undercover on land for an undetermined amount of time? WITH Locus?!

“Locus can fill you in on the rest after you get all of your things in order underwater and get assimilated on land. I can only HOPE you two can share a place without killing each other, at least for the time being.”

Felix snickered, he hoped Hargrove took it as his usual happiness at the thought of death, but he knew Locus knew. Knew he was laughing at the fact Hargrove had no clue about the two of them. Hargrove continued,

“You can start tomorrow,” he turned around and waved his hand, dismissing them. “Locus knows the number one rule. Do NOT forget it.”

Locus turned to Felix and they walked backwards to the railing, Felix never taking his eyes from Hargrove. Locus shoved Felix overboard before hurdling over himself.

Once in the water and fully transformed Felix grabbed ahold of Locus’ hand and dove further into the depths. He was too excited to notice the pull back on Locus’ hand.

He let go when he reached a reasonable depth,

“Can you believe our luck? Legging! Together! I’m not even mad you kept this secret from me!”

Felix knew it would be too hopeful to expect a smile on Locus’ face when he turned around, but he didn’t expect the complete grimace and downtrodden look. Unfortunately, Felix was also not naïve enough to have no clue why the expression was there.

“Come ON, Locus! We’ll be on land! Away from newly returned _Agent Wash_ ,” he made absolutely no attempt to mask the disdain and loathing at the name.

All he got in return was a low grunt before Locus turned and swam away, leaving Felix feeling the rare cold of the watery depths of these tropical waters.

Felix clutched his hands into fists. Felix was pissed. They were doing SO WELL. Now this just had to come and, that fucking Washington had to come back.

Felix smiled. Oh yeah, he was going to make Wash suffer. And Felix would get to have some revenge closure of his own.


	9. The Choosening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They get chosen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Jesus this has been a stressful semester for me, I'm sorry for the late short chapter

Bitters was annoyed, although, try finding a time he wasn’t at least mildly annoyed. It had been a long day, full of rule breaking and half-hearted work and weird emotions. The last thing he wanted was a briefing.

To be completely honest, if he hadn’t been with the others when it was called, he probably would have straight up skipped.

Ugh, he just wanted to go home and sleeeeeeep. We watched as the agents that had gone on land filed into the room and circled around the stone table in the middle of the room.

He elbowed a loud as fuck Palomo when Tex and Church entered the room. They didn’t really like having to shut everyone up.

“But where’s Captain Tucker?” Palomo hissed.

Bitters scanned the room and shook his head in response. It _was_ kind of strange. Captain Grif was there, usually Tucker would be right next to him.

“I mean, they get into little fights sometimes but they’re almost always together. Unless,” Palomo gasped, “what if something _happened_ to Captain Tucker?! Oh God, I should have been there,” Bitters rolled his eyes.

Palomo was really piling on the crazy today. He hushed him,

“Maybe he’s just with Church today, they hang out sometimes too dude.”

This seemed to help calm the cadet down a bit. But Bitters could still feel the anxiety pouring off of Palomo.

Bitters sighed but before he could scold Palomo again, or even move his seat so to be as far from the vibrating kid, Church and Tex spoke up. That shut him up.

They began droning on about the normal stuff- everyone was back safely, the day was a success, blah blah blah, new mission on land. Wait what?

“The field agents assigned to land will be: Tucker, York, Caboose, Grif, DuFresne, and Carolina. They will each be assigned one junior cadet to assist them. York will have Palomo, Andersmith is with Caboose, Bitters with Grif, Matthews with DuFresne, and Jensen with Carolina.”

There was mumbling from all around until Palomo spok up above everyone else, “Why am I with Agent York and not Captain Tucker? Tucker doesn’t have someone!”

That was when Tex sighed and rubbed her forehead. She looked to Church, who spoke up, “That…brings us to our last subject,” he turned to the door.

“Tucker come on in.”

That was when the shouting started, which in hindsight was probably a terrible idea. Because who else but Agent fucking Washington, MIA and assumed KIA for 3 YEARS?! Would walk through that door with Captain Tucker?

He was ushered out almost immediately by the same person accompanying him in. The room did not quiet down, led by none other than Palomo. Awesome.

Bitters looked around the room, Tex looked about to punch Palomo’s lights out, Jensen was holding Palomo back, Andersmith was…also holding him back AND doing a better job of it. Bitters looked to the back of the crowd around Tex and Church and saw Matthews just kind of floating in the same spot and looking at his hands. Uh oh.

It seemed like the news of Wash’s revival wasn’t even registering with the guy.

Bitters shook his head, he had other things to worry about- like this new mission.

Tex slammed her tail on the podium in front of her and broke it. Now it seemed everyone remembered why they shut up around her. The room quieted down. Through grit teeth, Tex spoke,

“Everyone NOT listed for this mission: leave. This information is not as pertinent to you and you will be briefed as soon as _I_ feel like it.”

Bitters was actually pushed back because of the backlash of water from how fast everyone left that room.

The emptiness of the room was nearly choking him. He slowly started toward the others before seeing that Matthews still hadn’t moved from looking at his hands, he swerved and grabbed Matthews by the wrist dragging him along.

Palomo was backing into Andersmith’s chest and as far from Tex as he possibly could as she gave him her shark glare, (no she didn’t really turn into or even look like a shark, but he swore she could smell his heart beat, yes _smell_ ).

Once Palomo was done whimpering, Agent Church began,

“Look, I’m going to get right to it- people are dying.”

Somehow the room got even more stifling. Church sighed,

“People are dying and we need a one-up on our enemies,” he looked around the room and over to Tex, “so we came up with a plan. We have thought about this for a while and we think the next step toward reaching our goals is… on land.”

He didn’t know what he expected, maybe some kind of distraction/spy mission or other crazy bullshit. Bitters kept forgetting that they were an actual army…kind of.

Jenson was the first to speak up,

“O-on land.”

Tex nodded.

Next was Andersmith,

“Like, real dry land?”

Both Tex and Church rolled their eyes. Matthews spoke,

“And you chose…us?”

“Hand mother fucking picked,” Church said.

Palomo was being weirdly quiet again, so Bitters nudged him as he spoke,

“So you picked the people with the most experience out of the group of people that has practically NO experience. Whoop-die-doo! Where can we opt out?”

That was when Captain Tucker re-entered the room,

“There is no opt-out, stupids.”

This appearance, more likely than Bitters’ shove, pulled Palomo from his trance.

“Sir, what is this all about? Is this because of Wash? What about Felix and Locus?”

Before Tucker could open his mouth, Tex spoke up,

“ _This_ is because of new intel that you will be briefed on shortly to which you can ask questions _afterwards_.”

Suddenly the water surrounding them was much colder and all eyes shifted nervously from Tex to Palomo before settling on the she-shark.

\----

So they were briefed. Well, they all sat down and got through a few more insults and THEN they were briefed.

Bitters didn’t really know if he would be able to do what they were asking. Or if anyone else would (let alone Matthews, he chanced a glance in his direction).

Hell, they’d only just been to the friggin surface! It’d been illegal to do before they joined the army… two years ago at age 18. It was harder to break rules in an extremely oppressive government.

Of all the people to ask for this mission, why _them_?!

Apparently this had either been a unanimous thought or they all shared a hive mind, because the next words out of Church’s mouth were:

“Now you might all be wondering, _If we’ve got all these badasses like the Freelancers on our side then why are we choosing you bunch of losers for our super awesome top secret mission?_ ”

There was a pause.

“And that is an excellent question! One that I’m sure Captain Tucker would be fucking delighted to explain.”

He gestured toward the aqua-tailed mer who rolled his eyes. He took a deep breath and glanced toward the doorway before starting,

“I know you guys don’t really believe in yourselves-”

Bitters scoffed, “Or anyone else believes in us for that matter.”

“BUT,” Tucker continued, giving Bitters a harsh look.

“You have each been paired with a more experienced soldier to shadow and gain experience of your own. We believe you guys have incredible potential and are perfect for this mission. You have just enough enthusiasm and trust to run this mission.”

Bitters was over this, “Alright what’s the REAL reason, huh?”

“Swear to God that’s why! Or are you quitting this mission, Private Bitters?”

Bitters was silent.

“Hmm, I suppose you guys are also pretty damn convenient because you are the perfect age group for the cover story…also the Freelancers are kinda needed here in the case of a bigger attack. ALSO they didn’t want to do it.”

Bitters laughed and, to his surprise, so did Palomo and Matthews.

Church spoke next,

“Hey you fucktards, this is a SECRET MISSION that is _actually_ important. Just cause it was turned down doesn’t make it any less so. So take it fucking seriously. So what you aren’t the most qualified? We _chose_ you guys out of the tens of others.”

He looked around the room,

“Are you going to step up or wuss out?”

Without missing a beat, Jensen spoke up,

“I’ll-I’ll do it.”

“As will I, Sirs,” said Andersmith (surprising nobody).

Matthews laughed but nodded, “Same here.”

“Well, I can’t miss out if everyone else is going! Count me in!” Palomo said, enthusiastic as ever.

That just left Bitters.

“God I hate you guys. But fine, I’m in.”

The room was silent once again while everyone smiled and looked at each other.

Church rolled his eyes,

“You guys are all fucking nerds. Go home. Get ready. Your fucking mission starts tomorrow.”

He left with Tex talking about how stupid the whole “I’m in” thing had been and high-fiving when they agreed.

Assholes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to note that the Privates call Tucker and Grif and those guys "Captain" while everyone else calls them "Agent" because they messed with the Privates when they first came on and thy just kept the names  
> It's a really loose system they got there


End file.
